Pakistani Airstrikes Target Afghanistan09/24 06:27

   

   PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Pakistan said it carried out airstrikes early 
Thursday on 10 sites in Afghanistan that it said were used to launch drone 
attacks against Pakistan a day earlier, a sharp escalation in 
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-pakistan-fighting-human-rights-women-ea3b
44f95662e38f189d9888a3193629 between the two countries that threatens 
international mediation efforts.

   The airstrikes struck southern and eastern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, 
Paktia and Khost, killing four civilians, Afghan government spokesperson 
Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.

   "These shameless acts of aggression and attacks by the Pakistani military 
regime will be met with an appropriate response," he said.

   The announcement of the strikes by Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah 
Tarar in a post on X came after officials said Afghanistan's Taliban forces had 
fired eight drones and 
https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-carried-out-strikes-inside-afghanistan-95178
c5833c7a6a621c9bb0f06a78915 after Pakistani troops foiled what they described 
as a cross-border infiltration attempt by militants.

   Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesperson, rejected Pakistan's claims of 
drone attacks and warned of "consequences" for Pakistan over its airstrikes.

   The conflicting statements about the drone attacks came two days after 
Pakistani fighter jets struck sites in eastern Afghanistan that Islamabad said 
were militant hideouts.

   The escalation 
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-pakistan-china-peace-talks-6ebb8f7ad7da39
3a274d1fa4e1d372b7 by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting 
peace between Kabul and Islamabad.

   Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan's Taliban government of allowing 
militants to operate from its territory and 
https://apnews.com/article/pakistan-afghanistan-security-militants-border-taliba
n-d763986429a518d9cd06df3a18ffaaac across the border, an accusation Kabul 
denies.

   "Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable 
action against those using Afghan territory to perpetrate terrorism against 
Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime has chosen to escalate the situation 
through hostile drone operations against Pakistan," Tarar said.

   "The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate and 
strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the 
attempted attacks against Pakistan," he added.

   Pakistani officials also claimed Wednesday that security forces had 
neutralized eight rudimentary drones launched by the Afghan Taliban before they 
could enter the northwestern city of Kohat and the border town of Torkham, and 
that Afghan forces fired mortars and other heavy weapons at Pakistani border 
posts. Pakistani forces responded with artillery fire targeting Taliban border 
posts, mortar sites and defensive positions, they said.

   The four officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not 
authorized to talk to the media about the latest flare-up.

   In Monday's airstrikes, Pakistan's Information Ministry said 28 militants 
were killed, while Afghan authorities said at least three civilians died and 
four others were wounded. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan confirmed the 
civilian casualties and Kabul formally protested the attack.

   On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Pakistani Foreign 
Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern about what he said was the presence of 
more than two dozen anti-Pakistani militant groups in Afghanistan.

   Monday's Pakistani airstrikes followed a shootout with militants in Hangu, a 
district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, 
that killed six Pakistani security personnel. Days earlier, a suicide bomber 
struck a mosque inside a police compound in the nearby city of Kohat.

   Eight gunmen then stormed the compound, triggering a 20-hour gunbattle that 
killed at least 21 people, most of them police officers. No group had claimed 
responsibility for the attacks.

   Pakistani authorities blamed the violence on the Pakistani Taliban and 
allied militant groups. The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as 
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-pakistan-border-clashes-children-killed-t
aliban-44c7bb28cdf68615b413a81eb4e4fe36, have stepped up their attacks on 
Pakistani security forces, boosted by the Afghan Taliban's return to power in 
Afghanistan in 2021.