Airstrikes that Afghanistan’s Taliban government blamed on Pakistan hit two eastern provinces late Wednesday, killing at least three people, wounding seven and damaging homes, officials and witnesses said Thursday.
Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry condemned the strikes in Nangarhar and Khost as a “provocative act” and summoned Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul.
The Defense Ministry also denounced the assault, warning on X that “such barbaric and brutal actions benefit neither side, but deepen divisions between two Muslim nations and fuel hatred. These irresponsible activities will have consequences.”
Neither the Pakistani government nor the military commented on the alleged strikes.
Kabul previously accused Pakistan of launching airstrikes in Afghanistan against suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, a group banned in Pakistan and blamed for some of the country’s deadliest terrorist attacks.
In Nangarhar’s Shinwari district, members of a family whose home was reduced to rubble sifted through debris to recover what they could.
“They dropped the first big bomb on my house. My house was completely destroyed,” said Shah Sawar, a resident of Shinwari district. “First I pulled a child out of the rubble, then I pulled four children and a woman out.”
Nangarhar’s deputy governor, Maulvi Azizullah Mustafa, said the strikes were carried out by Pakistani drones. The Foreign Ministry said three people were killed and seven wounded in Nangarhar and Khost.
In December 2024, Kabul accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes against suspected Pakistani Taliban hideouts in Paktika province. Pakistan did not acknowledge those strikes at the time. Kabul said it retaliated by hitting several points inside Pakistan.
The latest violence comes a week after top diplomats from Pakistan, China and Afghanistan met in Kabul and pledged closer cooperation against terrorism. It also came three months after Pakistan and Afghanistan upgraded diplomatic ties to improve relations.
Still, tensions between Islamabad and Kabul have remained high since 2021, when the Taliban seized power, mainly over Kabul’s alleged support for the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in Pakistan in recent years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, which is separate from but closely allied with the Afghan Taliban. Kabul denies that, saying it does not allow anyone to use its soil against another country.
