KABUL, June 29 - Pakistan's security forces said they killed at least 29 militants in a combination of air and ground operations along the border with Afghanistan, while Afghan officials reported that the strikes killed dozens of civilians.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on X on Monday that airstrikes on three sites in the Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika and Kunar killed 25 militants and destroyed "large quantities" of weapons and ammunition. In addition, four fighters tied to the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of Pakistan's Taliban were killed during ground operations in the Bajaur district of Pakistan's northern border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, confirmed the death on Sunday of one of its commanders, Khan Ferosh aka Zabul, in the Bajaur operation.
Afghan government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the strikes had killed 38 civilians and injured 163, including women and children. Fitrat said the majority of casualties resulted from Pakistani jets bombing a house in Paktia province, which he said killed 28 people and injured 158. According to Khalid Ahmad Sajad, deputy head of the affected district, Samkani, residents who rushed to assist the wounded were struck by a second attack on the same area.
"Everyone was asleep when the aircraft came and began attacking this house. Inside the house were children, women, men, and elderly people," said resident Mata Khan.
Afghanistan's Deputy Information Minister Mohajer Farahi issued a statement saying the "attack will certainly be avenged at the appropriate time".
Tarar defended the strikes as a response to what he described as "recent multiple terrorist incidents". He cited, in particular, a bomb-and-gun assault on a Sindh Rangers facility in the southern city of Karachi on Saturday, an attack claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar that he said killed three of the paramilitary troops and injured four. Tarar wrote on X that "Security forces precisely struck terrorist camps and safe havens."
The aerial assault on Sunday was Pakistan's second strike on targets in Afghanistan that Islamabad said belonged to militants and risks deepening the intermittent conflict between the two sides - former allies that saw their most serious clashes in February.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring militants it blames for plotting attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban rejects those claims, stating that militancy is Pakistan's internal problem.
Context and developments:
- Pakistan reports a total of 29 militant deaths from coordinated air and ground actions along the Afghan border.
- Afghan officials say 38 civilians were killed and 163 injured in the strikes, with the greatest number of casualties coming from a single house strike in Paktia province.
- Ground operations in Bajaur resulted in the death of a commander confirmed by the Pakistani Taliban.