Islamabad, Pakistan. Pakistan said on Monday that its security forces killed at least 29 militants in ground and air operations along the Afghanistan border. Afghan Taliban authorities said Pakistani airstrikes killed at least 38 civilians and injured 163 people.
Pakistan reports militant deaths
Pakistan said Sunday’s aerial assault was its second strike on targets in Afghanistan that it said were used by militants. The operation came amid an intermittent conflict between the former allies, who fought their worst battle in years in February.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on X that Pakistan’s airstrikes on three targets in the Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika and Kunar killed 25 militants and destroyed large quantities of weapons and ammunition.
Pakistan also said four more fighters linked to the Jamaat-ul-Ahrar faction of Pakistan’s Taliban were killed in ground attacks in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Afghan authorities report civilian casualties
Afghanistan government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said the strikes killed 38 civilians and injured 163, including women and children.
He said most of the casualties resulted from Pakistani jets bombing a home in Paktia province, where 28 people were killed and 158 were injured.
Local account of second strike
Khalid Ahmad Sajad, deputy head of the Samkani district affected by the airstrikes, said residents were rushing to help the wounded when another strike hit the same location.
“While they were carrying out rescue efforts, Pakistani military forces launched a second airstrike on the same location,” he told a press conference.
Pakistan cites recent attacks
Tarar said Pakistan was responding to recent multiple terrorist incidents, including Saturday’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar bomb and gun attack on a Sindh Rangers facility in Karachi that killed three troops and injured four.
“Security forces precisely struck terrorist camps and safe havens,” he said in a message on X.