Pakistani strikes kill dozens in Afghanistan
Kabul had previously accused Islamabad of carrying out unprovoked attacks in which civilians were killed; but Pakistan says it only targets militants.
The two countries agreed to a ceasefire last October after weeks of deadly clashes. But like internationally brokered ceasefire agreements in the past, this ceasefire has since broken down.
The BBC has not independently verified the death toll claimed by the Pakistani and Taliban governments in the latest attacks.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government says the attacks targeted civilian homes, while Pakistan says the attacks targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Pktika and Kunar provinces.
Taliban officials said casualties were concentrated in the village of Mandokhail in Pktika province.
Sunday’s attacks came a day after three members of the Pakistani paramilitary force Sindh Rangers were killed at their headquarters in Karachi, according to the Pakistani military. All three militants were killed in the suicide attack, and Pakistani authorities said they had arrested the fourth militant, who was Afghan.
Jamaat-ul Ahrar, the splinter branch of the TTP, claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack.
Both the TTP, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar are banned in Pakistan and by the United Nations for their involvement in past attacks.
Intermittent border clashes and airstrikes in the border area have killed dozens of people in recent months, according to officials in both countries.
Dozens of people lost their lives in clashes between the two countries in February. Hundreds of people were killed in a Pakistani attack on a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul in March.
In early June, Pakistan launched deadly air strikes that killed 26 militants. The Afghan Taliban government also announced that 13 people, most of them children, died in the attacks.
