At least eleven Taliban insurgents were killed in an air strike carried out by "foreign forces" , according to a statement from the Helmand province government reported by Khaama Press. 

The US is the only country, aside from Afghanistan, flying strike missions.

The statement said that at least two Taliban leaders were killed in the strike which targeted an insurgent "gathering". They were identified as Zaheen and Ghazni and reportedly belonged to "Kochian Mahaz" brigade. 

A date was not given for the strike but the statement was reported on February 23. 

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Umomi Bagh area, Garamser district, Helmand province
• References: Khaama Press 

A US drone strike killed 12 members of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State late on February 20, according to Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, Nangarhar province's police spokesman.

An unnamed official told Khaama Press that the strike hit the group while they were travelling in a vehicle in Bandar area. Local officials told the news site the fighters were all foreign nationals. 

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Bandar area, Achin district, Nangarhar province 
• References: Khaama Press, Pajhwok 

A key Taliban commander was killed in a drone strike in Ghazni province, Liaqat Ali Amini, an Afghan army spokesperson, told Xinhua.

The Taliban commander was identified as Qari Salim, also known as Sabawon, and was killed in a strike on a "rebel hideout", Amini said. He added that the strike injured two of Salim's bodyguards. 

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike
• Location: Nawa district, Ghazni province
• References: IANS, Xinhua 

Tensions heightened between Pakistan and Afghanistan following reported Pakistani military strikes or shelling on Afghan soil. The strikes followed a deadly attack on a Sufi shrine in Pakistan's Sindh province on February 16. The Pakistan Army reportedly said it had information that those behind the attack in Sindh were from neighbouring Afghanistan. Strikes were launched the next night, according to military sources quoted by Geo TV. Times of India said a "media report" indicated four camps of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar group were targeted across the border from Pakistan's Khyber and Mohmand tribal agencies. Provincial Police Spokesman Faridullah Dehqan told Khaama Press that two civilians were killed in shelling in Kunar Province.

• References: Washington Post, Times of India, Dawn, VOA, Hindustani Times, Khaama Press

Dost Mohammad Nayab, the Uruzgan governor's spokesperson, said that several airstrikes hit the province, adding that the strikes were conducted by both Afghan forces and the "foreign".

It is not clear whether to attribute the strikes to Afghan or US forces. A date for the strikes was also not given but they were reported on February 14.

Local officials said the strikes hit in the vicinity of Tarin Kot.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike 
• Location: Tarin Kot, Uruzgan province 
• References: Khaama Press

A senior Taliban leader was killed with four of his fighters in Paktika, according to the provincial government media office. A statement from the office identified the leader as Pach, also known as Faryadi, and described him as the shadow district chief of Barmal.

Unnamed local government officials said the strike was conducted by "foreign forces" but the sourcing is too vague to confirm this as a US strike as yet.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike
• Location: Mangarti area, Barmal district, Paktika province 
• References: Khaama Press

When questioned about the strikes in Sangin, Brig Gen Charles H Cleveland said the US conducted approximately 30 “air-to-ground” attacks in Sangin district last week. It is not clear how many of these were part of the attack that killed 18 civilians. The remaining 28 strikes not recorded by the Bureau have been added into the database in a single entry under February 11, the date the New York Times reported Cleveland's comments.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strikes 
• Location: Sangin district, Helmand province 
• References: New York Times

Three strikes in February killed 26 civilians, including 19 children and five women, in Sangin district, Helmand province, a Bureau investigation has found.

Hamid Gul's family home was the first hit - he lost his 50 year-old mother, Bibi Bakhtawara, six brothers and a sister. All seven children were under 16 years of age. Bibi Rahmania, his niece, also died. She was just two years old.  

The family home in the village of Mata Lakar was "leveled to the ground" in the attack, he said. Gul had been in the city of Lashkarga, where he works, at the time. 

Shopkeeper Fida Mohammad lived in a village just a few miles away from Gul. His village was hit on the same night. 

His son, Habib Rahman, 21, told the Bureau that February 9 2017 had been an ordinary day. The family ate dinner together and went to bed. Fida Mohammad’s house was an extended building, stretched around a compound. Rahman and two of his brothers lived on one side of the house with their families, Fida and his wives lived on the other side, along with more of his children.

A blast, at about one o'clock in the morning, woke Rahman and the rest of the family on his side of the house. They dashed outside to find their father’s side of the home flattened. All in all they lost 13 family members that night, including Habib Rahman's mother and step-mother, as well as his four sisters Amina, 17, Habiba, 15, Najiba, aged eight and Fatima, aged just four. Rahman also lost a niece, Nooria, who was one year old.

The next night, in the small hours of February 11 2017, Haji Mullah Ghafar was going to early morning prayers in the village of Shakar Sheela, just outside of Taliban territory. A local imam, or prayer leader, he was in the mosque when a blast flattened his house.

His 55-year old wife Bibi Sara was killed, along with his nine year-old son, Zia and Freshta, his eight year-old daughter. His grandson, Rohullah, aged just nine, also died.

We have been unable to pin down whether it was US strikes that led to the civilians casualties. We have included the civilian casualties as a range to reflect the ambiguity over who is responsible.

Three local officials interviewed by Bureau reporters on the ground claimed US airstrikes had destroyed the houses and killed their inhabitants. The United Nations (UN) said the same, in its biannual accounting of Afghan civilians killed in the war, released in July 2017, adding that there appeared to have been no fighting in the area at the time, meaning the attacks may have been pre-planned.

A spokesperson for Resolute Support, the US-led Nato mission in Afghanistan, told the Bureau that after four investigations the organisation could not confirm or deny responsibility for killing the civilians, though he pushed back strongly against the UN’s claims that there was no fighting in the villages at the time. 

Resolute Support has officially concluded the case as “disputed”, one of four categories for recording allegations of civilian casualties. It was used in this case because Resolute Support cannot decide if insurgents or the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) were responsible for the casualties, the spokesperson told the Bureau.

News of possible civilian deaths first emerged on Twitter within hours of the strikes. Resolute Support posted a tweet acknowledging it had received allegations of civilian casualties from US air attacks. A spokesperson then told the Bureau it had “no evidence” that civilians had died but it was investigating Taliban claims of civilian harm. It later opened “a formal review" to determine the credibility of the claims. 

News reports differed on casualty figures. A Taliban propaganda site said that 30 civilians had been "hurt" in the attack, 25 of which were killed. Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported tribal elders saying that at least 19 civilians were killed and 20 others injured, with one tribal elder claiming US strikes hit a house in Chinari village, killing ten members of the family including women and children. 

It is not clear what the target could have been in any of these strikes. The UN said nine Taliban fighters were killed when the house next door to Gul’s was hit, though Gul denies there were any Taliban combatants in his village.

Rahman, too, said that there were no Taliban in his village, insisting the closest were about 15 minutes walk away. But Hayatullah Hayat, the governor of Helmand, told the Bureau that the house next door to Fida Mohammad’s had been struck because the Taliban were using it as a base for attacks on the district centre. Sardar Mohammad, an Afghan policeman, also said there were Taliban nearby. According to Mohammad, the strike killed five Taliban fighters who were sheltering in Fida’s compound after incoming fire had hit their previous position. 

Ghafar also said there was no Taliban near his house, just a nearby army checkpoint. But Sardar Agha Ibrahimkhel, an Afghan army captain, said that unbeknownst to Ghafar Taliban fighters had been trying to dig a tunnel under one of the checkpoints. Scores of Afghan soldiers in Sangin had been killed by the Taliban tunnelling under checkpoints, packing the shafts with explosives and then detonating the charges.

Afghan forces have struggled to keep the Taliban at bay in Helmand. The situation in Sangin district was particularly bad. The US were forced to launch around 30 air attacks in the week leading up to February 10 or risk losing the district capital.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Sangin district, Helmand province 
• References: Resolute Support Twitter, Voice of Jihad, DPA, NAN, UNAMA, Guardian, Reuters, TOLO News, New York Times, Bureau of Investigative Journalism reporting, UNAMA, Bureau reporting 

Two senior commanders of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State were killed in "NATO drone strikes", according to Mohammad Hussain Mashraqiwal, a spokesperson for the Nangarhar province police chief. He identified the commanders as Mohammed Omar Sadiq and Omar Farooq.

The strikes reportedly killed a further nine alleged militants and injured six others. Khaama Press reported that the two commanders were killed in Pekhar Khor area of Achin district, while the others were killed in Nari Oba area of Haska Mina district but the sourcing was vague.

A US military spokesperson confirmed to AP that forces had conducted counter-terrorism strikes in Nangarhar province on February 8 but did not provide any additional details.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Pekhar Khor area, Achin district and Nari Oba area, Haska Mina district, Nangarhar province
• References: AP, Khaama Press 

Two members of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State were killed and three others wounded in a drone strike, according to Attaullah Khogyani, the Nangarhar governor's spokesperson.

The strike was reported on February 8 but Khogyani made the comments on February 7, according to Khaama Press. The reporting says the strike hit "last night" which is most likely referring to the night before the comments were made.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Char Wazi area, Haska Mena district, Nangarhar province 
• References: Pajhwok

Six Taliban members were killed in US air strike, according to the Helmand government media office. A statement reportedly released by the media office said a local Taliban leader, identified as Mawlavi Najeeb or "Madad", was among the dead.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Kharko area, Garamser district, Helmand province 
• References: Khaama Press

Gul Islam Siyal, the governor of Zabul province's spokesperson, said that Afghan forces hit "militant hideouts" in a strike in the night.

• Type of strike: Afghan Air Force strike 
• Location: Khak-e-Afghan, Zabul province 
• References: Pajhwok

A series of US air strikes on February 6 killed at least two members of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State and injured three others, according to the "provincial police commandment". The sourcing is too vague to confirm the strike and add it to the strike tally as yet.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike 
• Location: Charzoi and Nari Obo areas, Haska Mena district, Nangarhar province
• References: Khaama Press

A Taliban member was killed in an air strike, according to the provincial police commandment, but it was not clear if the Afghan Air Force or US forces conducted the strike.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike 
• Location: Behmaro area, Chaparhar district, Nangarhar province 
• References: Khaama Press

A member of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State was killed in a drone strike conducted "by the foreign forces", according to the provincial police commandment. The sourcing is too vague to record this as a confirmed US strike as yet. A date for the strike was also not given but it was reported on February 4.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike 
• Location: Haska Mena, Nangarhar province 
• References: Khaama Press

At least 21 members of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State were killed and six others wounded in US drone strikes in Haska Mina and Achin district, according to Major Sher Aqa Faqeri, a spokesperson for 201st Selab Military Corps.

The strikes were reported alongside an overnight clash and it was not clear if the strikes took place at the same time.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strikes
• Location: Haska Mina and Achin district, Nangarhar province 
• References: Kuwait News Agency, Pajhwok

Khaama Press reported that five members of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State had been killed and five others wounded in two separate US drone strikes.

The first strike, which hit Gorgori area of Haska Mena district at 9am local time, killed four fighters and wounded a further three, according to the provincial police commandment.

The second was reportedly the strike that killed Shahid Omar which is recorded in the entry above. The first strikes sourcing is too vague to confirm as yet.

• Type of strike: Air or drone strike 
• Location: Gorgori area, Haska Mena district, Nangarhar province 
• References: Khaama Press, Khaama Press, Khaama Press

Two Pakistani media outlets reported a drone strike on February 2 in Afghanistan's Khost province, hitting close to its border with Pakistan.

They differed on who was killed. Dawn reported sources saying Mullah Akhtar Rasool, the leader of an Afghan Taliban faction, was killed when a drone hit a vehicle with two missiles in the Ali Sher area. This falls in Tere Zayi district. Five Afghan Taliban members were killed, it said.

The Express Tribune said that Mullah Muhammad Rasool's nephew and son-in-law were killed. However the reporting around the strike was unclear with a police spokesperson reportedly saying that Mullah Akhtar Rasool and four others were in car heading towards their hideout when they were targeted. The car was completely destroyed, the spokesperson said. It also said that six Taliban members were killed.

Both media outlets said the claims had not been independently verified.

Mullah Muhammad Rasool and Mullah Akhtar Rasool appear to be the same person, but Baaghi TV says Mullah Akhtar is Muhammad Rasool's nephew.

Captain William Salvin confirmed US Forces conducted a counter-terrorism strike in Khost province but said it took place on February 1. General Faizullah Ghairt, the police chief of Khost province, confirmed to Xinhua that a strike took place on the night of February 1 and an unnamed source told the media outlet that four members of the Haqqani Network had been killed in it.

A Bureau reporter spoke to various people to find out more details on the strike. A tribal elder who claimed to know those hit in the strike said they were all from Sabarai district and affiliated to Haqqani Network. The district governor for Sabarai suggested they were high ranking Taliban but did not know exactly what group they belonged to. Ghairt told our reporter that four commanders in Haqqani Network were killed. He rejected the claims Mullah Rasool or people connected to him were killed in the strike.

• Type of strike: US strike 
• Location: Khost province 
• Reference: DAWN, Express Tribune, Baaghi TV, US Forces - Afghanistan via email, Xinhua, Bureau reporting

A senior leader of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State was killed in a morning strike, according to Ataullah Khogyani, the Nangarhar governor's spokesman. Local officials said the strike was conducted by a drone and carried out by "foreign forces". They identified the leader as Shahid Omar. Khogyani said Omar was in command of at least 40 members of the group.

A later news report said that Qari Munib, described as a "top leader" of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State, was one of 12 militants killed in Achin, which included Omar. They had been killed in a series of airstrikes, it said. It was not clear if they had all been killed in strikes conducted by US forces.

Munib's death was however later confirmed by the US, who said he “was killed during a larger Afghan and U.S. counterterrorism operation focused on ... eastern Afghanistan" in a Pentagon statement issued on February 8 and reported by VOA. The Pentagon said Munib played a "key role" in two suicide attacks on the capital which took the lives of a combined total of nearly 100 people. One of the attacks hit Nepalese security guards at the Canadian Embassy in June 2016 while the second targeted a Hazara protest march in July. The Afghan government said Munib “was involved in large-scale atrocities against our people in Nangarhar’s Achin district and several other areas”, according to VOA.

An archived ISAF press release shows that Qari Munib, then described as a Taliban leader, was reported killed by an "Afghan and coalition security force" in November 2012.

• Type of strike: Air or drone strike 
• Location: Achin district, Nangarhar province 
• References: Khaama Press, Khaama Press, VOA, Department of Defence, BBC, BBC

The US conducted 36 strikes in Afghanistan in January, according to figures given to the Bureau by a US spokesperson.

The Bureau recorded 15 strikes for the month. The remaining 21 strikes have been added to the Bureau's database and included in the strike tally.

The data, released on February 2, did not include casualty estimates but was broken down into types of strikes. The spokesperson said that 20 strikes were conducted under counter-terrorism authorities and 15 strikes were conducted under rules passed in June giving US troops greater leeway to target the Taliban.

One strike was conducted using force protection rules that allow the US to take out threats to international forces as well as Afghan troops who are “in extremis”.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strikes 
• Location: Unknown
• References: US Forces – Afghanistan via email

A US military spokesman told VOA on January 31 that approximately ten air strikes had been carried out in the past 24 hours in and around Sangin.

The strikes were conducted to assist Afghan troops holding off a Taliban assault on Sangin, a key district centre in Helmand province.

“These strikes targeted Taliban fighting positions. We will continue to aggressively support our Afghan partners as they defend Sangin from the Taliban,” the spokesman said in a written statement given to VOA.

• Type of strike: Air or drone strikes 
• Location: Sangin, Helmand province 
• References: VOA

Xinhua reported Shir Aqa Faqiri, an army spokesperson, saying that seven alleged members of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State had been killed in a drone strike, including "two judges of the terrorist group".

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Nangarhar province 
• References: Xinhua

A drone attack killed two members of Afghanistan's branch of Islamic State and five members of Lashkar e Islam, a Pakistani terrorist group, according to Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal, a Nangarhar police spokesperson.

It targeted the positions of the fighters in Bandar area in Achin district on the night of January 27.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike 
• Location: Bandar area, Achin district, Nangarhar province 
• Reference: Pajhwok

An airstrike conducted by Afghan forces came to light when an investigation was launched into reports of civilian injuries. The Afghan National Army has rejected the claims.

However the Uruzgan Governor Mohammad Nazir Kharotai said he visited the clinic treating the victims. He reportedly received a call from the presidential palace ordering an investigation and said a delegation would be appointed.

It is not clear when the strike took place but it was within a few days of the investigation being launched which was reported on January 24.

• Type of strike: Afghan Air Force strike
• Location: Akhtar village, Chora district, Uruzgan province
• References: Pajhwok

Gul Islam Seyal, the governor’s spokesman for Zabul province, said that airstrikes killed 31 alleged Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. The strikes were conducted as part of the Afghan operation known as “Shafaq-2”.

• Type of strike: Afghan Air Force strike
• Location: Khak-i-Afghan district, Zabul province
• References: Pajhwok

An Afghan Air Force strike killed 21 members of Afghanistan’s branch of Islamic State in Zabul province, according to the “provincial police commandment”. A further seven were injured, including an alleged commander of the group.

• Type of strike: Afghan Air Force strike
• Location: Zabul province
• References: Khaama Press

The “provincial police commandment” said a US air strike killed three members of Afghanistan’s branch of Islamic State. It hit late in the afternoon.

The sourcing is too vague to confirm the strike and add it to the database as yet.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike
• Location: Jawargar area, Achin district, Nangarhar province
• References: Khaama Press

A vaguely sourced news report said that four members of Afghanistan’s branch of Islamic State were killed in a US drone strike. Two of the members were reportedly from Pakistan and the other two were from Tajikistan.

The strike was later confirmed by Attaullah Khogyani. He reported that the strike hit Bandr Khor area of Achin district in Nangarhar province. In a different report, Khogyani said that the strike had killed six members of the group, four of which were not from Afghanistan.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike
• Location: Bandr Khor area, Achin district, Nangarhar province
• References: Khaama Press, TOLO News, Pajhwok

Several top Taliban leaders were reportedly killed in a US strike in Helmand province, the “provincial government media office” said in a statement.

It reported a total of 25 alleged fighters killed or wounded in the strike, adding that at least 15 had been killed, including some Taliban leaders “loyal to Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence”.

Pajhwok reproduced a list of the Taliban members believed to have been killed and their alleged titles published by what it described as the “governor’s house of Helmand province”.

Four vehicles, 18 PK heavy machine guns, three mortars, four SPG-9 rocket launchers and 25 AK-47 assaults rifles were reportedly destroyed in the attack.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike
• Location: Musa Qala district, Helmand province
• References: Khaama Press, Pajhwok

Afghan air strikes reportedly killed 12 alleged fighters including Mualvi Attiqullah, a Taliban commander, in Garamser district, Helmand province. Ayub Omar Omari, the district chief, told Pajhwok News that the strikes hit the Gimak and Kharki areas of the district. He attributed the strikes to the Afghan Air Force.

• Type of strike: Afghan Air Force strikes
• Location: Gimak and Kharki areas, Garamser district, Helmand province
• References: Pajhwok

Four people were killed in a US drone strike on a car in the evening of January 10, according to Zar Moeed Mukhlis, “administrative chief” in the town of Aziz Kala.

The four were said to be members of the Haqqani Network, two of them commanders in the terrorist syndicate. The commanders, Nazar Janand Rohullah, were killed in the strike, Mukhlis said. They were “a bomb planter and in charge of the group’s weapons supply”, according to Pajhwok News though it was not clear which role was attributed to which of the men.

An unidentified local corroborated the strike hit a vehicle near Aziz Kala though did not have any information about casualties, Pajhwok reported.

• Type of strike: US air or drone strike
• Location: Aziz Kala town, Sabri district, Khost province
• References: Pajhwok

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior reported 21 alleged Taliban members had been killed in multiple air strikes in Logar province.

Specific dates for the strikes were not given but the information was reported by Khaama Press on January 2.

It is not clear whether Afghan or US forces conducted the strikes.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike
• Location: Logar province
• References: Khaama Press

According to Khaama Press, the “provincial police commandment” said a US drone strike killed at least ten members of Afghanistan’s branch of Islamic State.

The date of the strike was not mentioned in the reporting. The sourcing is also too vague to confirm this as a US strike as yet.

• Type of strike: Possible US strike 
• Location: Haska Mena district, Nangarhar province
• References: Khaama Press