KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Local Taliban officials have confirmed that Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces of Kunar and Paktika early Monday morning, killing at least three people and injuring several others.
Najibullah Hanif, the Taliban’s director of Information and Culture in Kunar, told TOLOnews that the Pakistani military conducted an airstrike at around 3:00 a.m. in Nurgal district of the province.
He said a house was targeted in the attack, killing three people and injuring several others.
Taliban officials later said the three people killed were members of the same family and that four others were wounded. The strike reportedly destroyed the family’s home in Patan village, Nurgal district.
Local sources also told TOLOnews that another airstrike was carried out at around 4:00 a.m. in Barmal district of Paktika province.
According to the sources, a vacant house and a shop were targeted in the Rakhah and Tor Kandi areas of Barmal. No casualties were reported from the strikes in Paktika.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, condemned the strikes, describing them as an act of “aggression” and a continuation of Pakistan’s alleged crimes against Afghanistan.
In a statement posted on X, Mujahid said the Taliban “condemns this aggression and oppression,” adding that Pakistani forces were carrying out such attacks to divert attention from security failures inside Pakistan.
He warned that the Taliban would give an “appropriate response” to the attacks.
The latest strikes came after reports of clashes between Taliban forces and Pakistani troops along the disputed Durand Line. Local sources in Zazi Aryub district of Paktia province said the two sides had clashed in the Spin Shaga area along the border.
The strikes also followed a deadly militant attack in Pakistan. On Friday, a suicide bombing and gun attack on a police complex in Kohat district, in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killed at least 31 people, including 16 police personnel, according to a senior Pakistani police official cited by AFP. More than 100 others were wounded.
The attack began at the Old Police Lines complex in Kohat, where a mosque is located inside the compound. Police said an explosives-laden vehicle was driven into the complex, followed by an armed assault as militants attempted to enter police facilities. The attackers targeted the compound while police officers and their families were attending Friday prayers, according to the provincial police chief.
Pakistan has accused militant groups operating from Afghanistan, particularly the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), of carrying out attacks inside Pakistan. The Taliban authorities have rejected Islamabad’s allegations and said militancy in Pakistan is an internal matter.
Pakistan’s Information Ministry said on Monday that its military had carried out strikes against suspected militant hideouts in Afghanistan and claimed that 28 militants and suicide bombers were killed. Pakistani officials did not initially provide details of the locations targeted. Taliban’s government, however, said the strikes killed three civilians and wounded four others.
The strikes mark a renewed escalation in tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan after nearly three months of relative calm. Relations between the two sides have deteriorated sharply since February, when they engaged in some of their most serious cross-border fighting in years. Hundreds of people have reportedly been killed in clashes and related violence since then.
The latest escalation comes as regional efforts to ease tensions between Kabul and Islamabad continue. Pakistan has repeatedly called on the Taliban authorities to take action against armed groups it says are using Afghan territory to plan attacks in Pakistan, while the Taliban denies providing sanctuary to such groups.
