In brief
On Sunday, Pakistan launched a series of airstrikes and deployed ground troops into Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) says the attacks killed 28 civilians, with an additional 49 injured. Taliban officials cite the village of Mandokhail as the main casualty hub and denounce the strikes as a “cowardly act” and “atrocity.” Pakistani officials claim the operation targeted militant hideouts in response to recent attacks. The incident follows a October ceasefire that has since broken down, and adds to a pattern of cross‑border attacks that have dominated the two countries’ fragile relations.
UNAMA said Pakistan’s recent airstrikes and ground operation in the Afghan border provinces of Paktia, Paktika and Kunar left at least 28 civilians dead, with 49 more wounded. Women and children were among the victims.
Taliban officials described the attack as a “cowardly act” and “atrocity,” noting that the bulk of the casualties occurred in the village of Mandokhail, where a house was struck while occupants slept. An eyewitness reported the heart‑breaking scene of children, elderly people and women killed inside a damaged home.
Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar claimed 29 militants were killed during the operation, which was launched in response to “recent terrorist attacks against innocent people.” He insisted the forces were targeting militant hideouts, not civilians.
The strikes follow a contentious ceasefire that began in October but has since collapsed, leading to renewed clashes along the shared border. Earlier this year, Pakistan had conducted a deadly strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul, killing hundreds, and earlier June, killed 26 militants but also left at least 13 civilians, many of them children, dead.
The incident also occurred a day after an attack at the headquarters of the Sindh Rangers in Karachi, where three Pakistani paramilitary soldiers were killed. Pakistan’s military blamed the attack on the Jamaat‑ul‑Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Tehrik‑e‑Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group banned in Pakistan and by the UN for its past atrocities.
Both sides accuse each other of launching unprovoked attacks that harm civilians, amid a long history of cross‑border violence that has strained diplomatic relations for years.
