Pakistan has carried out air strikes on eastern Afghanistan, killing 46 civilians, the Taliban regime said on Wednesday.
The Taliban condemned the strikes, which it claimed killed mostly women and children, as an example of “clear aggression” from its neighbour and pledged to retaliate.
A Pakistan security official told AFP that the bombardment across the border late on Tuesday had targeted “terrorist hideouts” and described the reports of civilians killed as “baseless”.
The aerial attacks were the latest spike in hostilities on the frontier between Afghanistan and Pakistan after deadly strikes in March.
Pakistan has been battling a resurgence of militant violence in its western border regions since the Taliban’s 2021 return to power in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s Taliban authorities of harbouring militant fighters, allowing them to strike on Pakistani soil with impunity – which Kabul has denied.
Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban government spokesman, told AFP that Pakistan bombarded four areas in the Barmal district of eastern Paktika province.
“The total number of dead is 46, most of whom were children and women,” he said, adding that six more people were wounded, mostly children.
A senior Pakistan security official said the strikes were on “terrorist hideouts” using jets and drones and that they killed at least 20 militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the country’s homegrown Taliban group.
“Arguments from Afghan officials claiming civilians are being harmed are baseless and misleading,” he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.
A Taliban defence ministry statement late on Tuesday condemned the strikes, calling them “barbaric” and a “clear aggression”.
“The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered, but rather considers the defence of its territory and sovereignty to be its inalienable right,” the statement said, using the Taliban authorities’ name for the government.
Skirmishes on the frontier followed deadly air strikes in March by Pakistan’s military in the border regions of Afghanistan, which Taliban authorities said killed eight civilians.
A Barmal resident, Maleel, told AFP Tuesday’s strikes killed 18 members of one family.
“The bombardment hit two or three houses, in one house, 18 people were killed, the whole family lost their lives,” he said.
He said a strike killed three people in another house and wounded several others, who were taken to hospital.
’Strikes will continue’
Taliban officials said the dead were local residents and people who had fled over the Pakistan border from the Waziristan region.
North Waziristan, which borders Paktika, has historically been a hive of militancy and was the target of a long-running Pakistani military offensive and US drone strikes during the post-9/11 occupation of Afghanistan that saw many people flee over the border.
The strike comes after the TTP, who share a common ideology with their Afghan counterparts – last week claimed responsibility for a raid on an army outpost near the border with Afghanistan, which Pakistan said killed 16 soldiers.
The Pakistani security official said the recent attack “was a significant trigger” for Tuesday’s strikes, “but not the only one”.
He added: “The interim Taliban regime has been repeatedly urged to take action against the TTP, but their response has been lukewarm. Such strikes will continue as necessary.”
A UN Security Council report in July estimated up to 6,500 TTP fighters are based there – and said “the Taliban do not conceive of TTP as a terrorist group”.
Earlier Tuesday, high-level Taliban officials were meeting with Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan who was on a visit to Kabul.