Pakistan launched new airstrikes on Afghanistan early Wednesday, escalating months of cross-border fighting that has killed hundreds. The strikes hit the eastern Afghan provinces of Khost, Kunar, and Paktika, shattering more than a month of relative calm.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid reported that 13 people were killed—11 children, one woman, and an elderly man—and 14 other civilians were wounded. Pakistan confirmed the strikes, claiming they targeted militant hideouts and infrastructure linked to recent attacks inside Pakistan, and that 26 militants were killed.
The two sides often provide widely differing casualty figures.
The conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan has intensified since late February, when Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan. Several rounds of internationally mediated peace talks have failed to produce a lasting truce.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring militants, particularly the Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP), which carries out deadly attacks inside Pakistan. The TTP is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which has ruled Afghanistan since 2021.
Kabul denies the charge.
In a post on X, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that “precise and calibrated strikes were carried out along Pakistan-Afghanistan border areas on hideouts and safe havens of masterminds and planners” of attacks by the Pakistani Taliban and insurgents in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region. Tarar said four targets were destroyed: a training center, a hideout, an ammunition cache, and a facility belonging to militant commanders.
He added that Pakistan’s counter-terrorism campaign will continue “at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported terrorism.” Pakistan’s Information Ministry dismissed Afghanistan’s reports of civilian casualties, calling them propaganda.
Wednesday’s strikes came a day after suspected Pakistani Taliban militants attacked a security post in Pakistan’s Hasan Khel area, triggering an intense gunfight that killed six members of the Federal Constabulary and wounded several others, according to Pakistan’s Interior Ministry. Local authorities said security forces killed eight attackers and thwarted an attempt to overrun the checkpoint.
Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi attended funeral prayers for the dead personnel in Peshawar.
Though the situation along the border was calm hours after the strikes, Kabul has previously responded to Pakistani strikes by targeting Pakistani posts along the frontier. Pakistan declared in February it was in open war with Afghanistan, following a surge in militant attacks.
Afghanistan has said a Pakistani airstrike in March hit a drug treatment center in Kabul, killing more than 400 people; Pakistan disputed the death toll and denied targeting civilians. Wednesday’s strikes come months after China hosted peace talks in Urumqi, where the two sides agreed not to escalate their conflict.
Masood Khan, an Islamabad-based security analyst, said the solution lies in enforcing a decree by Afghanistan’s Taliban leader Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada ordering the TTP to stop attacks on Pakistan. Tension and cross-border fighting have left the border closed since October, hampering trade and transportation and stranding thousands of people.