Pakistan strikes on eastern Afghanistan kill dozens
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Afghan residents standing near a damaged house after a Pakistan air strike in the Barmal district of Paktika province on June 10.
PHOTO: AFP
TSAMKANI, Afghanistan – Pakistani air strikes killed dozens of people in eastern Afghanistan, with Islamabad saying on June 29 it targeted militants but the Afghan government reporting civilian casualties.
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.
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, although the Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied their territory harbours militants.
The Taliban government said the air strikes hit three eastern provinces, killing 36 civilians and wounding 163.
“When local residents gathered to conduct rescue operations, the area was bombed for a second time” in Paktia province, deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the offensive also included ground operations in border areas and targeted Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, the TTP (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan) splinter group.
“Three targets in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar were destroyed during precision strikes,” he said in a statement, adding that four militants were also killed in ground operations.
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 June 27 in one of the worst militant attacks in Pakistan’s most populous city in years.
The 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.
The 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.
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 air strikes 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. AFP
