Pakistan targets insurgents in Afghanistan after suicide bomber attacks soldiers

Pakistan targets insurgents in Afghanistan after suicide bomber attacks soldiers

Pakistan said early this morning that it had targeted insurgent hideouts along the border with Afghanistan that it blames for recent attacks inside the country.

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that Pakistan had carried out attacks inside Afghanistan, and that they, he claimed, were targeting civilians in the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika.

In a post on Iks, Mujahid stated that dozens of people, including women and children, were killed and wounded in the attack.

He blamed the Pakistani military for the attacks.

Pakistan's Information Minister Atalah Tarar wrote on IX earlier today that the military had conducted "selective intelligence-based operations" against seven camps allegedly belonging to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP).

He added that a branch of the Islamic State (ISIS) was also targeted in the attack.

A suicide bomber attacked a security convoy in the Bannu district of northwestern Pakistan, killing two soldiers, hours before today's attacks.

Tarar said Pakistan had "convincing evidence" that the recent attacks were carried out by insurgents acting "on the orders of their leadership and people based in Afghanistan."

He said that Islamabad has repeatedly called on Taliban authorities in Kabul to prevent attacks by militant groups, but no concrete action has been taken.

Tarar added that Pakistan is calling on the international community to pressure the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to fulfill their obligations under the ceasefire, signed in Doha, and not to allow their territory to be used against other countries.

Insurgent violence has surged in Pakistan in the past few years, with numerous attacks largely blamed on the TTP and banned Baloch separatist groups.