Pakistan says it struck 10 sites in Afghanistan

Pakistan said early Thursday that it had carried out airstrikes on 10 sites in Afghanistan that it claimed were used to launch drone attacks against Pakistan a day earlier, marking a sharp escalation in recent fighting between the two neighbors and threatening ongoing mediation efforts.

There was no immediate response from Kabul to the latest strikes. However, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesperson for Afghanistan's Taliban government, denied Wednesday that Afghan Taliban forces had carried out any attacks.

The conflicting claims came two days after Pakistani fighter jets struck targets in eastern Afghanistan, which Islamabad said were militant hideouts.

The latest announcement by Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar in a post on X came after officials said Afghan Taliban forces had launched eight drones and shelled Pakistani border posts after Pakistani troops foiled what they described as an attempted cross-border infiltration by militants.

The claims could not be independently verified.

The latest escalation threatens mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting peace between Kabul and Islamabad.

Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan's Taliban government of allowing militants to operate from its territory and launch attacks across the border, an allegation Kabul denies.

“Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable action against those using Afghan territory to perpetrate terrorism against Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime has chosen to escalate the situation through hostile drone operations against Pakistan,” Tarar said.

“The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistani officials also said Wednesday that security forces had neutralized eight rudimentary drones launched by the Afghan Taliban before they could enter the northwestern city of Kohat and the border town of Torkham.

They also said Afghan Taliban forces had fired mortars and other heavy weapons at Pakistani border posts, prompting Pakistani forces to respond with artillery fire targeting Taliban border posts, mortar sites and defensive positions.

The four officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media about the latest flare-up.

In Monday's airstrikes, Pakistan's Information Ministry said 28 militants were killed, while Afghan authorities reported at least three civilian deaths and four injuries. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan confirmed the civilian casualties, and Kabul formally protested the attack.

On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern over what he described as 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 northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, which killed six Pakistani security personnel.

Days earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque inside a police compound in the nearby city of Kohat.

Eight gunmen then stormed the compound, triggering a 20-hour gunbattle that left at least 21 people dead, most of them police officers. No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Pakistani authorities blamed the violence on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups.

The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, have intensified attacks on Pakistani security forces since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.