Pakistan hits 10 Afghan sites after alleged drone attacks on border posts
Pakistan said early on Thursday that it had carried out airstrikes on 10 sites in Afghanistan, saying the locations had been used to launch drone attacks against Pakistan a day earlier. The move marks a sharp escalation between the neighbours and could affect mediation efforts by regional powers seeking to ease tensions between Kabul and Islamabad.
The announcement was made by Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on X after Pakistani officials said Afghanistan's Taliban forces had fired eight drones and shelled Pakistani border posts following an alleged attempt by militants to cross into Pakistan. There was no immediate response from Kabul to the latest strikes inside Afghanistan.
On Wednesday, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for Afghanistan's Taliban government, denied that Afghan Taliban forces had carried out any attacks. The conflicting statements came two days after Pakistani fighter jets struck sites in eastern Afghanistan that Islamabad described as militant hideouts. Pakistani officials said security forces had neutralised eight rudimentary drones allegedly launched by the Afghan Taliban before they could enter Kohat in the north-west and the border town of Torkham. They said all the drones were shot down and caused no damage.
Pakistani officials also said Afghanistan's Taliban forces shelled border posts overnight after Pakistani troops foiled what they described as a cross-border infiltration attempt by militants. According to four local Pakistani officials, the infiltration attempt was focused on areas near Afghan border posts in Paktia and Nangarhar provinces and was allegedly supported by Afghan Taliban forces. The officials referred to the militants as "Fitna-ul-Khawarij", a term Islamabad uses for the Pakistani Taliban, which is a separate group but allied with the Afghan Taliban.
After Pakistani troops stopped the infiltration attempt, Afghan Taliban forces allegedly fired mortars and other heavy weapons at Pakistani border posts, the four officials said. Pakistani forces responded with artillery fire at Taliban border posts, mortar positions and defensive sites. The officials said Afghan Taliban forces later abandoned several positions and suffered casualties. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. The accounts could not be independently verified.
This week's airstrikes ended several weeks of relative calm after months of cross-border hostilities. Earlier this month, Pakistani security forces had killed 15 militants trying to cross into the country from Afghanistan. The latest escalation also threatens efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting peace between Kabul and Islamabad.
In Monday's airstrikes, Pakistan's Information Ministry said 28 militants were killed, while Afghan authorities said at least three civilians died and four others were wounded. The UN mission in Afghanistan confirmed the civilian casualties, and Kabul formally protested the attack. On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar voiced concern over what he said was the presence of more than two dozen anti-Pakistani militant groups in Afghanistan.
Monday's Pakistani airstrikes followed a shootout with militants in Hangu, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa near the Afghan border, in which six Pakistani security personnel were killed. Days earlier, a suicide bomber hit a mosque inside a police compound in nearby Kohat. Eight gunmen then stormed the compound, leading to a 20-hour gunbattle that killed at least 21 people, most of them police officers. No group claimed responsibility. Pakistani authorities blamed the violence on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups, saying the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan has stepped up attacks on Pakistani security forces since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Pakistan's latest strikes, the reported drone attacks, the shelling along the border and the earlier violence together mark a fresh rise in tensions between the two countries, with both sides sharply at odds over militant activity along the frontier.
