Pakistani airstrikes kill 36 civilians in Afghanistan and wound 160, officials say

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Overnight ground operations and strikes by Pakistani forces have killed at least 36 civilians and injured more than 160 others, Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbors further escalated. One Afghan official said the attacks would be met with retaliation.

Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said. Pakistan said the operations were launched in response to multiple militant attacks across Pakistan.

Afghanistan condemned the strikes as a “cowardly act of aggression” and an “act of brutality.” Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi, the deputy minister for publications at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said Afghanistan would respond “in due time.”

“The military regime in a cowardly manner bombed Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces last night,” Farahi said. “This will definitely be retaliated against in due time. The decisions of the regime are not made based on emotions, but rather serious measures are taken at the right time.”

Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, said the Pakistani forces targeted a home in Paktia’s Chamkani district, killing an elderly man and a child, while other family members were injured. When residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158, he said.

Six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan district, Paktika province, when another home was struck, he said. A civilian home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but killing some 30 livestock.

Tarar, the Pakistani information minister, shared three videos on X that he said showed projectiles striking sprawling camps and safe havens of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. Tarar said the overnight strikes killed “terrorists” and destroyed weapons and ammunition stockpiles.

Tarar said Pakistan’s relentless counter-terrorism campaign “will continue at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism from the country.”

Pakistan uses the phrase “Khawarij” to refer to Indian-backed Pakistani Taliban and other militants. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban.

India however, strongly denied any involvement, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the statements “baseless allegations.” Pakistan should “look inwards, take credible action against the terror infrastructure on its territory,” he said.

Militant attacks targeting Pakistan’s police and security forces have surged in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban — known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — and allied militant groups for most of the violence. The Pakistani Taliban are separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban that returned to power in 2021.

The Pakistani security operation followed a militant attack targeting 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 an Afghan national in wounded condition.

Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.

Sunday’s 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 neighboring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.

The 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.

Pakistani officials said an uneasy calm prevailed along the Pakistan‑Afghanistan border following the cross‑border operation, with security forces remaining on high alert.

__

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writer Munir Ahmed contributed from Islamabad.