Pakistan carries out deadly airstrikes along Afghanistan border | Pakistan
Pakistan reported that at least 25 people died in air strikes targeting militants in eastern Afghanistan, while the Afghan government reported that dozens of civilians lost their lives.
Pakistani information minister Attaullah Tarar said the operations targeted a group he blamed for a deadly weekend attack in Karachi, but Afghan officials have repeatedly denied harboring militants on their soil.
The attacks are the latest flare-up in violence between the two countries, whose relations have been strained since the Taliban government came to power in 2021, and followed weeks of war that broke out in February.
Dozens of civilians were killed or injured in airstrikes in three eastern provinces, the Taliban government said on Monday. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the military action and called it a “cowardly act of aggression”.
The attacks came a day after militants armed with weapons and explosives targeted the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in the southern port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another attacker, whom the army identified as a wounded Afghan national.
Jamaat-ul Ahrar, the separatist group of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement on Saturday night.
Tarar said Pakistan’s latest operation on the Afghan border targeted hideouts and safe havens of Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitnah al-Harij, a term used by Pakistan for the Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan has witnessed an increase in militant attacks targeting police and security forces in recent years. Authorities blamed the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, for much of the violence. The TTP is a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies.
Neighboring countries agreed to a ceasefire in March, but there have been intermittent attacks since then; According to Afghan officials, 13 people were killed in Pakistani attacks in June.
While Islamabad is mediating between the United States and Iran to end the war in the Middle East, Pakistan says the fight against militancy at home requires attacking Afghanistan.
Afghan officials have repeatedly denied that the country is being used by militants and said Pakistani operations have led to scores of civilian deaths, including an attack on a drug treatment center in March that the UN said killed hundreds of people.
According to the UN, Pakistan and Afghanistan went to war in late February; Weeks of violence left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced.
The conflict has seen fierce fighting along the border and unprecedented airstrikes by Pakistan on Afghan cities, including the capital and southern Kandahar, where the Taliban’s supreme leader is located.
Mediation by many countries, including China, has failed to produce a lasting solution between the neighbours, and the border has been largely closed since cross-border violence in October.
With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press
