Kabul: At least 13 people were killed, including 11 children, after Pakistan’s military launched air strikes in three Afghan provinces, Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on Wednesday, in a renewal of a conflict that has killed hundreds this year.
At least 14 others – all of them children and women – were injured in Islamabad’s strikes that violated Afghanistan’s airspace and bombed civilian homes in the provinces of Kunar, Khost and Paktika, Mujahid added.
There was no immediate comment from the Pakistani military or government, but security officials told Reuters that Islamabad has carried out air strikes in what they called “hideouts and other facilities of the Pakistani militants using them against Pakistan.”
Islamabad has blamed Kabul for harbouring militants that it says plot attacks in Pakistan. The Taliban has denied the allegations and said militancy in Pakistan is an internal problem.
The renewed violence threatens to disturb a long lull in fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan, allies-turned-foes who fought their worst battle in years in February.
The two countries agreed to a fragile ceasefire in March, with China trying to mediate a settlement to the conflict.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar, writing by Hritam Mukherjee; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Lincoln Feast)
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