A spokesman for Provincial Governor Ahmad Zai Abdulzai told Anadolu Agency that the drone had targeted a militant concentration in Nangarhar’s Khogiani district on Saturday night, killing a dozen insurgents.

Provincial police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal confirmed that an unmanned aircraft had killed a dozen insurgents in Khogiani, nine of whom, he said, were foreign nationals.

He did not provide details regarding the slain militants’ nationalities, merely saying that an investigation of the incident was currently underway.

“Noor Rahman, a Taliban-designated district chief for Khogiani, and another [militant] commander, Syed Jan, were among the slain rebels,” Mashriqiwal said, adding that there had been no civilian casualties.

The Taliban, for its part, has yet to comment on the aerial attack.

Drone strikes in eastern Afghanistan have recently been stepped up to coincide with an ongoing anti-militant offensive by the Afghan security forces.

Meanwhile, at least 30 militants associated with the Daesh militant group were killed in a fresh operation launched in Nangarhar’s Achin district.

The development comes a few weeks after a number of security posts in Achin were attacked by hundreds of Daesh fighters, according to local officials.

Mashriqiwal said reinforcements had recently been deployed to in Achin, where they had killed 30 Daesh rebels in joint ground-and-air operations.

He added that recent attacks by Daesh fighters on two security posts had been repulsed “with only three security personnel wounded in the fight”.