Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of launching overnight airstrikes in three eastern provinces on Tuesday. They claimed 10 civilians, including nine children, were killed in the strikes, which signal worsening tensions between the two neighbours.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Afghan government’s chief spokesman, said in X that Pakistan had “bombed” a civilian’s house in Khost province, killing nine children and a woman, the Associated Press reported.
He added that other strikes were carried out in Kunar and Paktika provinces and four others were injured.
Pakistan’s military and government did not immediately comment on the allegations, according to the report.
Clashes on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan
The development comes more than a month after cross-border clashes erupted when the Afghan government claimed that Pakistani drone strikes had hit Kabul.
The latest escalation follows a deadly attack a day earlier in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, where two suicide bombers and a gunman attacked federal police headquarters.
Three officers were killed and 11 others were injured in the attack on Monday morning.
No group claimed responsibility for the Peshawar attack, but suspicion quickly fell on the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
It is a separate group, but closely linked to the Afghan Taliban, and many of its leaders are hiding in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has repeatedly urged Afghan Taliban rulers to prevent TTP militants from using Afghan territory for attacks. Kabul denies the allegations, but relations soured further after Afghanistan accused Pakistan of drone attacks on its capital on October 9 and threatened retaliation.
The clashes that followed killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and militants before Qatar brokered a ceasefire on 19 October.
Two subsequent rounds of talks in Istanbul failed to resolve the dispute, with Pakistan saying Afghanistan had refused to provide a written guarantee that TTP fighters would not operate from Afghan soil.
The Afghan government has said in recent years that it does not allow anyone on its soil for attacks against any country, including Pakistan.
