A suspected US drone strike against ISIL targets in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province has killed at least 18 people, though other reports put the death toll and number of civilian casualties higher. <br /><br /> The missile reportedly struck a house, on the eastern border with Pakistan, where people were sleeping after a gathering to welcome a local elder who had returned from the Hajj pilgrimage. <br /><br /> Several others were also badly wounded in the airstrike. <br /><br /> “The bombing happened at 3.00am and I was asleep, I did not know what happened, I just heard a big blast,” said one of the wounded, Hafizullah Khan. <br /><br /> While several ISIL fighters were apparently among the dead, civilian casualties in US drone strikes against militants have long been a source of friction between Afghanistan and its Western allies.<br />
