46 civilians were killed in Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban-led authorities in Kabul said today, after Pakistan said that militants' hideouts in the border areas were attacked.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Radio Free Europe (RFE) that the victims of Tuesday's attack, which hit four locations in the Barmal district of Paktika province, included many women and children.
Pakistan's military said security forces killed 13 insurgents overnight in an intelligence operation in South Waziristan, a Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan's Paktika.
RSE could not verify these claims.
The new attacks are likely to further increase tensions between the two neighboring countries.
Pakistan says 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. The Afghan Taliban say the TTP is operating in Pakistan.
The new Pakistani airstrikes came days after TTP militants carried out an operation near the northwestern border with Afghanistan that killed 16 and wounded eight members of the security forces.
The attack occurred when militants opened fire on a checkpoint in South Waziristan in the early hours of December 21.
The TTP, which wants to impose Sharia law in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack and said 35 members of Pakistan's security forces had been killed. RSE could not confirm the number of dead. Neither side said how many militants were killed during the attack.
Since the Taliban regained control of Kabul in August 2021, the number of TTP attacks in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has been on the rise.
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