New Delhi: Pakistan Monday carried out air strikes in Afghanistan’s northeastern Paktika and Kunar region, killing at least three and injuring four.
At least one house in Kunar province was hit in the attacks, killing three members of the same family and injuring four others, Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said in a post on X.
“In the Barmal district of Paktika province, two locations were bombarded, destroying one shop and one unoccupied house, with no casualties reported,” he said.
The latest air raids came just days after Pakistani Taliban’s Hafiz Gul Bahadur faction claimed responsibility for a bombing at a mosque inside a police facility in Kohat. The explosion, followed by a gun battle, killed at least 21 people, most of them police officers, according to Pakistani officials.
On Saturday, Pakistan’s Ministry of Information warned of air strikes inside Afghanistan in retaliation for attacks on Pakistani soil. The ministry attributed the Kohat assault to fighters who it said were operating from bases in Afghanistan.
In a statement Monday, the ministry said that “selective targeting of terrorist camps” were carried out across the border. “Based on credible intelligence, selective targeting of Terrorist camps and hideouts belonging to Fitna al-Khwarij and its affiliates has also been carried out in the border region with Afghanistan with precision and accuracy,” the statement read.
“Three targets were destroyed with precision including a Suicide Bombers training markaz, killing twenty-eight terrorists along side multiple suicide bombers. Large quantities of weapons and ammunition stored at these Marakiz and hideouts were also destroyed (sic).”
Former Afghanistan president Hamid Karzai, in a statement on X, condemned the strikes calling it a ‘breach of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.’
“The former President considers Pakistan’s current security problems to be the result of that country’s misguided policies regarding Afghanistan, and hopes that it will review its policies and choose the path of good neighborliness, positive relations, and civilized interaction with Afghanistan,” the statement noted.
Relations between the former allies have deteriorated sharply since February, when the two countries engaged in their most serious clashes in years. Islamabad has accused Afghanistan’s Taliban government of sheltering armed groups that carry out cross-border attacks. Kabul has rejected the allegations, arguing that the violence is an internal matter.
Pakistan carried out several airstrikes inside Afghanistan, which it said targeted Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) bases in 2022, following the fall of Kabul in 2021. Afghan authorities accused it of killing civilians, and there were cross-border raids, artillery duels and closures of crossings like Torkham and Spin Boldak.
Skirmishes then resumed three years later in 2025 after a Pakistani airstrike in Kabul targeting the TTP leadership, and Afghan forces retaliated. A Qatari-mediated ceasefire followed.
Then in February, Afghan forces launched a cross-border offensive, and Pakistan responded the next day with air and ground strikes on military installations in Kabul, Kandahar and border areas. The next month, a Pakistani airstrike at a drug rehabilitation centre
In April, China mediated peace talks between the two countries in Urumqi, though fighting resumed at lower intensity after an Eid ceasefire.
“Pakistan has bombed Afghanistan repeatedly since October 2025, claiming to target TTP sanctuaries. Yet TTP attacks inside Pakistan have continued to increase. From a military point of view, what is the objective if the strikes are not reducing the TTP etc threat?” Afghan journalist Sami Yousafzai wrote on X.
“Is this counterterrorism—or simply Pakistan demonstrating military power against a poorer neighbour? Airstrikes alone cannot solve a cross-border insurgency,” he added.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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