Pakistan strikes targets in Afghanistan as Kabul reports civilian deaths

Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan on Thursday, saying it targeted militant sites in retaliation for attempted attacks on Pakistani territory. Afghanistan’s Taliban government said civilians were killed and warned it would respond.

Pakistan said its forces struck 10 targets and described the operation as “deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate,” limited to identified military objectives. France24 reported that Islamabad linked the strikes to an alleged Taliban drone attack on a border post, an accusation denied by a Taliban spokesman.

Accounts of the locations and casualties differed. Reuters, France24 and the BBC reported that Taliban officials said four civilians were killed in strikes affecting Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces. Deutsche Welle and Al Jazeera cited Afghan officials who reported at least nine civilians, all women and children, killed and 11 wounded in Helmand and Kunar provinces. Deutsche Welle said Pakistani authorities claimed 22 militants were killed and weapons and ammunition destroyed. The competing casualty figures were not independently verified.

The strikes followed renewed cross-border violence and a September 18 attack on a police facility in Pakistan that killed at least 31 people. A group linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed that attack. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities of sheltering the group, while Kabul denies the allegation and says militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.