At least 36 civilians were killed and more than 160 others injured in overnight Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan, Afghan officials said on Monday, as tensions between the neighbouring countries escalated further.
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said security forces launched a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border late on Sunday, followed by strikes on militant hideouts and safe havens that killed 29 fighters. He said the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across Pakistan.
Afghanistan Condemns Strikes
Afghanistan condemned the strikes as a "cowardly act of aggression" and an "act of brutality". Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for Afghanistan's Taliban government, said Pakistani forces targeted a house in Chamkani district of Paktia province, killing an elderly man and a child and injuring other family members. He said the area was struck again after residents gathered for rescue efforts, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158 others.
Fitrat said another strike on a house in Giyan district of Paktika province killed six people, mostly women and children. A civilian home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but killing around 30 livestock.
Karachi Attack Preceded Operation
Militant attacks targeting Pakistan's police and security forces have increased in recent years. Pakistani authorities have blamed the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and allied militant groups for most of the violence. The Pakistani Taliban are separate from, but allied with, the Afghan Taliban, which returned to power in 2021.
The Pakistani operation followed a militant attack on the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as a wounded Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Months Of Cross-Border Tensions
The cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan's military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. They ended about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an "open war" between the neighbouring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.
The latest escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory.
Multiple rounds of talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. China also hosted the two sides in April, and Beijing later said Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate their conflict and to explore a solution.
