At least 13 people killed in Pakistani strikes on suspected militant hideouts in Afghanistan

Pakistan conducts airstrikes on Pakistani Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan, sparking condemnation from Afghan officials and residents

Local Afghans and the Pakistani Taliban said Wednesday (December 25, 2024) that civilians, including women and children, were killed after Pakistan launched rare airstrikes inside neighbouring Afghanistan.

Pakistani security officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations, told The Associated Press that Tuesday’s (December 24, 2024) operation was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in the province of Paktika, bordering Afghanistan.

Residents in the area told an AP reporter over the phone that at least 13 people were left dead, adding that the death toll could be higher. They also said the wounded were transported to a local hospital.

Meanwhile, in a statement, Mohammad Khurasani, the spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, claimed that 50 people, including 27 women and children, have died in the strikes.

In Kabul, the Afghan Defence Ministry condemned the airstrikes by Pakistan, saying the bombing targeted civilians, including women and children. It said that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region.

Pakistan has not commented on the strikes. However, on Wednesday (December 25, 2024), the Pakistani military said security forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan, a district located along eastern Afghanistan’s Paktika province.

The strikes are likely to spike tensions between the two countries further. Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban government denounced the attack, saying on Tuesday (December 24, 2024) that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region and promising retaliation.

The TTP is a separate group but also a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

In March, Pakistan said intelligence-based strikes took place in the border regions inside Afghanistan.

Editorial: Blowback | On Pakistan, Afghanistan and insurgency

Pakistan has seen innumerable militant attacks in the past two decades but there has been an uptick in recent months. The latest was this weekend when at least 16 Pakistani soldiers were killed when TTP attacked a checkpoint in the country’s northwest.

Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban of not doing enough to combat militant activity across the shared border, a charge the Afghan Taliban government denies, saying it does not allow anyone to carry out attacks against any country.

Published - December 25, 2024 08:22 am IST