Islamabad, May 5 (RHC)-- At least 17 people have lost their lives in the latest U.S. assassination drone strike in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar.

Colonel Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, the press officer at the police headquarters of the province, said on Tuesday that the airstrike was carried out in the Landi Basawal area of Mohamand Dara District on Monday evening. Mashriqiwal claimed the victims were Taliban militants and that the attack targeted their hideout.

The United States carries out targeted killings through drone strikes in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Somalia. While Washington claims the targets of the drone attacks are al-Qaeda militants, locals and witnesses maintain that, in most cases, civilians have been the victims of the attacks over the past few years.

Meanwhile, statements by Afghanistan’s Defense and Interior ministries said on Tuesday that eight soldiers along with 27 militants were killed during separate military operations across the country in the past 24 hours.