Afghan forces target Pak in retaliation for deadly airstrikes

Kabul: Afghanistan's Defence Ministry said on Saturday that its forces hit several points inside Pakistan in retaliation for deadly airstrikes last week. Pakistan last Tuesday launched an operation to destroy a training facility and kill insurgents in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province. The strikes killed dozens of people, mostly women and children.

Comments from the Taliban Defence Ministry on Saturday, posted on X, said its forces targeted Pakistani points that “served as centres and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organised and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan.”

Ministry spokesperson Enayatullah Khwarzami gave no further information about the strikes, including how they were carried out and if there were any casualties on either side. However, a pro-Taliban media outlet, Hurriyet Daily News, cited ministry sources as saying that the strikes killed 19 Pakistani troops and three Afghan civilians. No one from Pakistan's Foreign Ministry was immediately available for comment. People celebrated Afghanistan's retaliation in the country's southeastern Khost province, according to the organiser, Rasheedullah Hamdard.