Pakistan’s Airstrikes Kill 28 Militants in Afghanistan, Reigniting Border Tensions

KABUL/ISLAMABAD: Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have flared up once again. On Monday, Pakistani airstrikes along the Pak-Afghan border in northeastern Afghanistan killed 28 militants, while Afghan officials reported that 3 civilians also died in the attacks.
The incident has raised fears of renewed tension between the two neighboring countries following nearly three months of relative calm. The strikes came just days after an attack on a police installation in northwestern Pakistan that killed at least 16 people.
Taliban Deputy Spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said at least one house in Kunar province was hit by Pakistani strikes, killing three members of a single family and injuring four others. Pakistan’s military has not yet issued an official statement regarding the strikes.
The airstrikes came a day after 6 Pakistani security personnel, including 2 army officers, were killed in an exchange of fire with militants in Hangu district near the Afghan border. This followed a deadly attack in Kohat on Friday, where a suicide bomber targeted a mosque inside a police lines compound and 8 armed attackers stormed offices, triggering nearly 20 hours of gunfire that left at least 21 people, mostly police personnel, dead and over 100 injured.
Afghan Government’s Response
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the airstrikes and warned of retaliation, calling them “an act of aggression and cruelty.” According to Fitrat, the strikes occurred around 3 a.m. in Kunar’s Narang district and Paktika’s Barmal district, destroying a house in Narang’s Pathan village, killing villager Noor Ahmad and two family members.
Pakistan’s Position
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information had warned on Saturday that attacks inside Afghan territory targeting militants could follow in response to domestic attacks. It blamed the Kohat attack on militants it said were based in Afghanistan, and demanded the Taliban government take “credible, verifiable, and permanent measures” to dismantle alleged militant hideouts, recruitment, and training networks.
Notably, cross-border clashes have killed hundreds since Afghanistan’s retaliatory strikes in February, with suspicion largely falling on the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).