US-backed drone strike 'kills dozens of civilians' in Afghanistan

The attack on Wednesday night targeted a hideout used by Islamic State group militants but accidentally hit farmers in the Khogyani district in Nangarhar province, three government officials told Reuters.

A local official in the province said a drone strike killed 30 workers and injured forty others in a pine nut field.

Afghanistan's defence ministry in Kabul confirmed that the strike by US and Afghan forces had been targeting IS militants, without commenting on civilian casualties.

The US is the only member of the international coalition in Afghanistan that provides air support in the conflict, but there was no immediate statement from US Forces in Afghanistan, the UN or NATO.

Fawad Aman, a deputy defence ministry spokesman, told AFP the ministry was investigating the reports.

A local resident said the victims were "ordinary labourers".

Read more: Afghanistan now world's most-deadly conflict with 74 killed daily

Earlier on Thursday, a powerful suicide truck bomb devastated a hospital in southern Afghanistan, killing 20 people and wounding 97 others, according to the province's governor.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing.

It was the third day in a row that war-weary Afghanistan, which is gearing up for a presidential election on 28 September, has suffered significant militant violence. 

On Tuesday the Taliban launched attacks in Kabul and in central Parwan province which killed nearly 50 people.

While on Wednesday unknown gunmen and a suicide bomber stormed a government building in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar, that left at least four dead. 

And, earlier Thursday, at least 10 people were killed and 90 wounded in a Taliban car bomb in the southern province of Zabul.

Ordinary Afghans continue to bear the brunt of the conflict, with more civilians killed in the Afghan war in 2018 than during any other year on record, according to the UN.

An increase in airstrikes by US and Afghan forces also led to more civilian deaths in 2018, with more than 500 killed by "aerial operations for the first time on record".

Agencies contributed to this report.