Taliban forces strike several points in Pak as retaliation

Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban of not doing enough to combat cross-border militant activity, a charge the Taliban denies, saying that it doesn’t allow anyone to attack another country from its soil. Pic/PTI

Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said on Saturday that its forces hit several points inside Pakistan in retaliation for deadly air strikes last week. A pro-Taliban media outlet, Hurriyet Daily News, reported ministry sources as saying that the strikes killed 19 Pakistani troops and that three Afghan civilians died in the violence. No one from Pakistan's Foreign Ministry was immediately available for comment.

According to a Taliban government official, Pakistan's air strikes on eastern Afghanistan last Tuesday, killed 46 people, mostly women and children, raising fears of further straining relations between the two neighbours. Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Afghan government, said those killed in the strikes that targeted four locations in Barmal, a district in the province of Paktika, were refugees, adding that six others were also wounded.

This strike came just a day after Pakistani security officials spoke on the condition of anonymity in line with regulations and told AP that the operation carried out on Tuesday was to dismantle a training facility and kill insurgents in Paktika. Comments from the Taliban Defence Ministry on Saturday, posted on X, said its forces targeted Pakistani points that "served as centres and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organised and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan." The ministry spokesman, Enayatullah Khwarzami, gave no further information about the strikes, including how they were carried out and if there were any casualties on either side.

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