Pakistan has launched deadly air strikes along its border with Afghanistan, breaking months of relative calm in the restive region.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said 26 militants had been killed in “calibrated strikes” on four targets. Afghanistan’s Taliban government reported 13 people, mostly children, were killed in Pakistani strikes across three provinces.
Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of harbouring terrorists that carry out attacks on its soil. The Taliban rejects this claim and maintains it does not use its territory to threaten other nations.
Earlier this year, clashes between the two countries left dozens dead, and in March a Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul killed at least 269 people, the UN reported.
Tarar said the strikes were a response to recent terrorist incidents in Pakistan and were aimed at “hideouts and safe havens” near the border, including a training centre and an ammunition cache.
The bombardment followed an attack on security forces near Peshawar that claimed at least six officers’ lives.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid described the strikes as having killed 11 children, one woman, and one elderly man in Kunar, Khost and Paktika provinces, injuring 14 women and children as well.
Afghanistan repeatedly asserts its territory is not being used to threaten other countries, noting that the clashes in late February involved an offensive by the Taliban on Pakistani military bases near the border, which was met with Pakistani counter‑strikes in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktika.
For further details on the March strike, see Omid Drug Rehabilitation Hospital strike.
