KABUL, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Nearly two dozen armed insurgents have been killed by unmanned planes in the eastern region of Afghanistan since Saturday, officials said Sunday.
The security forces in the latest strikes against the armed opposition groups targeted a Taliban hideout in the eastern Paktia province killing eight fighters and injuring seven others, spokesman for provincial government Abdullah Hasrat said.
"Acting upon intelligence report the security forces launched drone strikes against Taliban hideout in Kohsin area of Sayed Karam district early Sunday morning killing four rebels including their key commander Mullah Farooq alias Ebrahim and injuring seven others," Hasrat told Xinhua.
In a similar strike that carried out hours later, the unmanned plane attacked the same district, killing four more insurgents, the official said.
A day earlier on Saturday, the drone strikes had left dead 15 militants loyal to the ultra-hardliner Islamic State (IS) group in Achin district of the eastern Nangarhar province, provincial government spokesman Ataullah Khogiani said Sunday.
According to Khogiani, the NATO-led Resolute Support (RS) mission targeted a group of IS militants in Achin district of Nangarhar province on Saturday evening killing 15 fighters and destroying their hideout.
The airstrikes, which have increased since August, according to security officials, have yielded positive results in checking the activities of the armed oppositions groups in the insurgency-stricken country.
The Afghan defense ministry, according to its spokesman General Dawlat Waziri, would increase the number of unmanned planes operational centers in the country to target militants at any time elsewhere in the militancy-plagued country.
