By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
December 25, 2024
Pakistani air strikes killed 46 civilians in eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban-led government in Kabul said on December 25, while Islamabad claimed it targeted suspected militant hideouts in border areas.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told RFE/RL that there were many women and children among the victims of the December 24 strikes, which hit four locations in the Barmal district of Paktika Province.
There was no immediate comment from Pakistani authorities on the strike inside Afghanistan.
However, the Pakistani Army said security forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan, a Pakistani district that borders Paktika.
RFE/RL cannot independently verify the claims.
The strikes are likely to further spike tensions between the two neighbors.
Pakistan says that militants from the Islamist group Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are hiding across the border in Afghanistan, and Islamabad has repeatedly asked the Afghan Taliban to take action against them. But the Afghan Taliban say the TTP are in Pakistan.
The latest Pakistani air strikes come just days after TTP militants carried out a raid near the northwestern border with Afghanistan that killed 16 security officers and wounded eight others.
The attack occurred when militants opened fire at a security checkpoint in South Waziristan in the early hours of December 21.
The TTP, which seeks to impose Shari’a law in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack and said it killed 35 Pakistani security officers. RFE/RL could not independently confirm the number of dead. Neither side said how many militants were killed during the attack.
There has been a steady increase in TTP attacks in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in August 2021.
Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.
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