How U.S. Drones Continue Terrorizing Innocent Afghans

Exceptionally, I want to hint at a recent piece of myself with The Intercept. Last May, I visited several regions during my Afghanistan trip. One of these places was Khogyani district in the eastern province of Nangarhar. 

Khogyani is under full Taliban control while drones are haunting the sky, regularly killing a lot of innocent civilians. The district is considered as a no go area — not just by many journalists but also by locals from nearby cities. 

However, by entering such regions, you will truly recognize how the Afghan war zone looks like. 

“A few days ago, another drone strike took place. The victims were innocent farmers and their women and children,” said Shafiqullah, a driver from one of the villages in Khogyani, told me. 

Like many locals, Shafiqullah feared the drones and described how he often removes his SIM card to avoid being located. The U.S. has been known to identify and track targets based on the unique codes of their SIM cards.

Additionally, the people in Khogyani noticed that drone strikes increased since Donald Trump became president.

After I talked with local Taliban fighters, I also noticed that the U.S. strikes are still a huge catalyst for radicalism and extremism in the region.

“After every strike, people, sometimes the whole clan, join our fight. Especially when women and children get killed, the anger is enormous, they don’t have any other choice than to fight", Esmatullah Bashari, a Taliban-allied commander, told me.