He added that US Air Force authorities are investigating the cause of the crash, “but hostile fire was not a factor.”

On November 24, 2015, a surveillance drone belonging to the US-led NATO crashed in Afghanistan’s central province of Parwan. The Taliban militant group claimed it had brought downed the unmanned aircraft.

Just ten day earlier, another US unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in a remote mountainous area south of Kabul.

The United States regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border. Washington has also been conducting targeted killings through remotely-controlled armed drones in Somalia and Yemen.

The United States says the airstrikes only target militants, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have been the main victims of the attacks in most cases.

The United Nations says the US drone attacks are “targeted killings” that flout international law, Press TV reported.

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