Afghanistan stated that overnight Pakistani strikes on the country's eastern provinces resulted in the deaths of 13 people, including children, once again escalating tensions between the neighbors who have been in a conflict for several months that has claimed hundreds of lives on both sides. This was reported by Bloomberg, according to UNN.
Details
Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for the Taliban regime in Kabul, stated in a post on the X platform that the Pakistani military violated Afghanistan's airspace and launched strikes on civilian homes in Kunar, Khost, and Paktika provinces. According to him, 14 women and children were injured as a result of the attacks.
Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar and representatives of the country's military media wing did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Previously, Islamabad has stated that its strikes are precision-based and targeted at militant camps in Afghanistan.
Addendum
The parties have repeatedly engaged in clashes despite calls for a ceasefire from the international community and failed mediation efforts by Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and China. At the center of the conflict are Pakistan's accusations that Afghanistan harbors militant groups that carry out attacks on its security forces, which the Taliban denies.
Relations between the countries have been deteriorating since 2021, when the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan and violence in Pakistan's border regions increased.
In March, Afghan authorities claimed that Islamabad's strikes resulted in the deaths of at least 400 people in a hospital in Kabul, making it the deadliest incident at that time. Pakistan stated then that its attacks were aimed at military infrastructure.