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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.
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