Taliban Blames Pakistan For Air Strikes Killing 10, Including 9 Children
Zabihullah Mujahid
By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal and RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
November 25, 2025
The Taliban-led government in Afghanistan has vowed a “necessary response” after air strikes it alleged were carried out by Pakistan killed at least 10 people — nine of whom were children — just inside the country’s eastern border region.
The Taliban’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, wrote on X on November 25 that nine children, including five boys and four girls, and one woman were killed in the strike on the house of a local civilian in the Afghan city of Khost. Four more civilians were injured in another air raid in Kunar Province.
“The air strikes carried out last night by Pakistani forces in Afghanistan’s Paktika, Khost, and Kunar provinces constitute a direct assault on Afghanistan’s sovereignty,” Mujahid wrote.
“The Islamic Emirate strongly condemns this violation and reiterates that defending its airspace, territory, and people is its legitimate right, and it will respond appropriately at the right time,” Mujahid added.
The Pakistani military denied the Taliban claims saying it had not “attacked civilians inside Afghanistan.”
Mustaghfir Gurbuz, a spokesman for the governor of Khost, said drones and military aircraft carried out the attacks.
On the ground, anger and desperation were palpable as a mass funeral was held for those killed.
“The martyred are innocent people. There is nothing else. Pakistan is targeting civilians,” Abdul Aleem, who was an uncle of the children, told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal.
“The world should investigate and ask (Pakistan) about this. What use is the international community if they do not ask about this?”
Once close allies, the Afghan Taliban and Pakistan’s powerful military have fallen out and accuse each other of sheltering or supporting militant groups. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering the militant Tehrik‑e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) rebel group and some minor Pakistani Taliban factions.
In contrast, the Afghan Taliban accuses Islamabad of disregarding its rival Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K) extremist group.
The latest air strikes threaten a fragile cease-fire between the two Muslim neighbors who share a more than 2,500-kilometer-long border. Following intense clashes last month, Islamabad and Kabul agreed to a truce.
Tensions have been running high between the two countries following a suicide attack on a paramilitary installation in northwestern Pakistan on November 24.
At least three members of Pakistan’s paramilitary Federal Constabulary force were killed, and 11 others were injured when a suicide attacker targeted its headquarters in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
In a press conference on November 25, Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar blamed the Afghan Taliban and the TTP for a suicide attack in Islamabad.
The attack on November 11 killed at least 12 people and injured 21 more.
“Afghanistan is fully involved… and their soil is also involved. The people being sheltered there are also involved,” Tarar told journalists.
With reporting by the AFP and DPA.
Copyright (c) 2025. 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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