KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Pakistani airstrikes killed at least 36 civilians and wounded 163 others in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday night, Taliban authorities said, vowing retaliation, while Islamabad said the strikes targeted militant hideouts.
The strikes hit the eastern provinces of Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar, areas along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border that have seen repeated cross-border attacks in recent months.
In a statement on Monday, Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban, said all those killed and wounded were civilians, including women and children.
According to Fitrat, the deadliest attack occurred in Chamkani District of Paktia, where Pakistani fighter jets first struck a residential house, killing an elderly man and a child and wounding several family members. As residents gathered to rescue survivors, the area was hit again, killing 28 people and wounding 158 others.
In Walust village in Giyan District of Paktika, another residential house was bombed, killing six civilians, most of them women and children, Fitrat added. A strike in Barolo village in Manogai District of Kunar destroyed a house but caused no casualties.
The Taliban condemned the strikes as a “cowardly act of aggression” and “an act of brutality.” Hayatullah Muhajir Farahi, deputy minister for publications at the Taliban Ministry of Information and Culture, said the group would respond “in due time.”
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed the airstrikes, saying they were an “intelligence-based” operation targeting hideouts of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants and the breakaway faction Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. He said 25 militants were killed and large quantities of weapons and ammunition destroyed. The action was taken in response to recent terrorist incidents inside Pakistan, Tarar added, and Pakistan’s counter-terrorism campaign would continue “at full pace.”
The Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires in Kabul and lodged a “strong protest,” describing the strikes as a “violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and attacks on civilian homes.”
A day earlier, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Taliban chargé d’affaires in Islamabad to protest a deadly militant attack in Karachi on Saturday claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. Pakistani officials said an injured Afghan national was arrested and suspected of involvement in the attack.
Hamid Karzai, the former president of Afghanistan, condemned the Pakistani airstrikes, calling them a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and international law, and urged Pakistan to end what he described as a policy of confrontation and double standards toward extremism.
The latest strikes mark another escalation in strained relations between Pakistan and the Taliban authorities. Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of allowing TTP fighters to use Afghan territory to plan and launch attacks inside Pakistan. The Taliban deny the allegations, insisting they will not allow any group to use Afghan territory against other countries, and say Pakistan should take responsibility for its own security shortcomings instead of blaming others.
Cross-border violence has intensified since late last year, with both sides exchanging fire and carrying out operations along the frontier. According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), at least 372 civilians were killed and 397 wounded in Pakistani airstrikes and border clashes in the first three months of 2026. UNAMA also verified 13 civilian deaths and 10 injuries from Pakistani strikes on Khost, Kunar and Paktika on June 9 and 10.
Despite mediation efforts by countries including China, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the two sides have yet to reach a ceasefire agreement.
