Pakistan carried out airstrikes on hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, known as the TTP, in eastern Afghanistan early Monday, hitting Kunar and Paktika provinces. Two Pakistani security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at least 28 militants have been killed so far.
They referred to the dead as “Kharijites,” the term Pakistan’s military uses for TTP fighters. Pakistan’s military had not issued a formal statement when the latest reports came in.
Afghan officials say fighter jets hit Nurgal district in Kunar and Barmal district in Paktika at about 3 a.m. local time. The Taliban government in Kabul disputes Pakistan’s account and says the strikes killed three civilians. Deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said a house in Nurgal’s Pathan village was destroyed, killing its owner, Noor Ahmad, and two family members, and wounding four relatives.
Chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the dead were one woman and two men, and the wounded were two women and two men. In Barmal, Fitrat said strikes destroyed a shop and an unoccupied house, with no casualties.
The strikes came three days after an attack on a police compound in Kohat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A suicide bomber hit a mosque inside the compound during Friday prayers, and gunmen then stormed offices. At least 31 people died, including 16 police officers, and more than 100 were wounded.
No group had claimed responsibility by Monday, though suspicion has fallen on the TTP. On Saturday, Pakistan’s Information Ministry blamed militants based in Afghanistan and warned that Pakistan could strike them there. On Sunday, six Pakistani security personnel died in a shootout with militants in Hangu.
Mujahid called the strikes a repetition of “crimes” against Afghanistan and said Afghans will give an “appropriate response.” He accused Pakistan’s military of trying to divert attention from its own internal security failures. Afghan officials deny that militants use Afghan territory to attack Pakistan. Islamabad has long said the Taliban government shelters the TTP.
These are the first publicly reported Pakistani strikes inside Afghanistan in nearly three months. The last confirmed strikes, on June 28, hit Paktia, Paktika and Kunar, and the UN mission in Afghanistan said they killed at least 28 civilians. Monday’s strikes hit two of the same provinces. Pakistani officials say they killed 28 militants, and Kabul says three civilians died.
Neither account has been independently verified, and Kabul has vowed an “appropriate response.”
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