Pakistan carried out airstrikes overnight in eastern Afghanistan, Islamabad said on Monday, adding its operations had targeted militants as the Afghan government reported dozens of civilian casualties.
Pakistan’s information minister said the operations killed 25 militants and were aimed at a group that it blames for a deadly weekend attack in Karachi, though Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied their territory harbours militants.
The strikes are the latest flare-up of violence between the two countries whose relationship has been fraught since 2021, when the Taliban government took power, and follow a weeks-long war that erupted in February.
The Taliban government said on Monday the airstrikes in three eastern provinces killed or wounded dozens of civilians.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the military action, calling it a “cowardly act of aggression”.
Pakistan’s information minister said the offensive also included ground operations in border areas and targeted Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, the TTP splinter group.
“Three targets in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar were destroyed during precision strikes,” said information minister Attaullah Tarar in a statement. He said four militants were also killed in ground operations.
Read more: Trump is a ‘loser’ – Biden
– Simmering conflict –
The neighbours agreed to a ceasefire in March but there have been sporadic attacks since, with Pakistani strikes in June killing 13 people according to Afghan officials.
As Islamabad mediates between the United States and Iran to end their war in the Middle East, Pakistan says its battle against militancy at home requires its strikes on Afghanistan.
In the latest attack, explosives detonated and gunmen fired inside a Rangers paramilitary camp in Karachi on Saturday in one of the worst militant attacks in Pakistan’s most populous city in years.
Authorities said three paramilitary personnel were killed and that they had detained an Afghan national, one of several people involved in the attack.
Pakistan says its forces use “precise targeting” to aim at militant hideouts and weapons stores, especially those of the TTP, which has waged a violent campaign against Pakistan for years.
Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied the country is used by militants and say Pakistani operations have caused a heavy civilian death toll, including a strike at a drug treatment centre in March that the United Nations said killed hundreds.
Read more: Heatwave causes 1,000 excess deaths in France
Pakistan and Afghanistan went to war in late February, with weeks of violence killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands, according to the UN.
The conflict saw fierce fighting along the frontier and unprecedented Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan cities including the capital and southern Kandahar, where the Taliban supreme leader is based.
Mediation from several countries, including China, has failed to produce a lasting resolution between the neighbours, and the frontier has been largely closed since cross-border violence in October.
