Afghanistan's Taliban leaders said Pakistani air strikes killed dozens in the border regions between the two countries that Islamabad claimed were being used by militants as bases to launch attacks on Pakistan.
Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, said in a post on X on June 29 that the Pakistani military targeted the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar, along the border with Pakistan, killing 36 civilians, including children, and injuring 163 others.
Meanwhile, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said his country's security forces "precisely struck terrorist camps and safe havens" in Afghanistan, "eliminating terrorists and destroying weapons and ammunition stockpiles."
He added that Pakistani security forces conducted an "intelligence-based ground operation" near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in the Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
The Pakistani minister said the attacks targeted Fitna al-Khwarij, the government's term for the banned Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group.
The June 28 cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan's military carried out air strikes on alleged militant hideouts in Afghanistan on June 10, ending about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an "open war" between the neighboring countries, despite international efforts to broker lasting peace.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused Kabul of providing sanctuary to the TTP and its affiliated militant groups, which it blames for plotting attacks in Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban denies the accusations, saying the militant groups are Pakistan's internal problem.
