KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Pakistani air and rocket strikes killed at least three civilians and wounded 45 others in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province on Monday, local Taliban authorities said, as cross-border tensions between the two neighbors flared again.
Najibullah Hanif, head of the Taliban Information and Culture Department in Kunar, said women and children were among the casualties. He said the injured were transferred to the provincial hospital for treatment but did not provide further details on their condition.
Local sources earlier reported that multiple locations across the province were targeted, including the provincial capital, Asadabad. The Faculty of Education at Syed Jamaluddin Afghan University (Kunar University) sustained damage in the strikes. Rocket fire was also reported in the districts of Dangam, Manogai, and Sarkano, with intermittent attacks affecting several residential areas and villages.
Pakistani officials have not yet commented on the latest attacks.
The latest incident forms part of a broader escalation along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that began in late February 2026. Kunar province, which shares a long and mountainous border with Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region, has been one of the most frequently targeted areas, facing repeated rocket fire, artillery shelling, and airstrikes in recent weeks.
The United Nations previously verified 289 civilian casualties in Afghanistan from Pakistani strikes between late February and mid-March, including 76 killed and 213 injured, many of them women and children. Taliban authorities have reported significantly higher figures, claiming 761 killed and 626 injured as of early April during the peak of the clashes. The violence has also contributed to widespread displacement and damage to civilian infrastructure, including schools and health facilities.
The renewed attacks occurred despite ongoing diplomatic initiatives and local mediation efforts. Tribal elders from Afghanistan’s Sarkano district and Pakistan’s Bajaur district have recently engaged in talks aimed at securing a ceasefire and de-escalating the situation.
Taliban and Pakistani officials had also reached understandings in China-mediated talks in Urumqi to avoid actions that could escalate tensions, but both sides continue to accuse each other of violating agreements, with clashes persisting in several border areas.
