WORLD
Pakistan confirms Afghan strikes
Mediation from several countries has failed to produce a lasting resolution between the neighbors.
AFGHANISTAN (AFP) — An overnight airstrike hit the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, home to the Taliban government’s supreme leader, a resident told Agence France-Presse (AFP) early Thursday.
Pakistan’s minister of information said its forces had struck 10 targets in Afghanistan — without specifying where — accusing its neighbor of allowing “terrorist sanctuaries” on its soil.
The latest strikes come days after a deadly bombardment by Islamabad forces in eastern Afghanistan and nearly a week after a militant attack on a police headquarters in northern Pakistan that killed at least 31 people.
A Kandahar resident told AFP Thursday they heard a jet, then a large explosion, followed by a fire in the center of the city.
Hours later, Pakistan’s Minister of Information, Attaullah Tarar, confirmed air and drone strikes.
“Pakistan conducted precision aerial and drone strikes against 10 locations in Afghanistan,” Tarar said on X.
“The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate, and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan.”
At least three civilians were killed in the strikes on eastern Afghanistan earlier this week, the United Nations reported, which Pakistan said killed 28 militants.
Local officials told AFP Thursday that Pakistan had struck in two places in eastern Afghan provinces overnight.
In Paktia, jets bombed the Afghan army’s 203rd Mansouri Corps, said Mohammad Rasool Ahmadi, the governor’s spokesperson, without providing any information on casualties.
Airstrikes also targeted Khost province without causing casualties, said Mustaghfa Gurbaz, the governor’s spokesperson there.
Although there have been multiple such attacks in the border area, strikes on Afghan cities are rare.
Mediation fails
Both Kandahar and the capital Kabul were hit when Afghanistan and Pakistan went to war in late February, with weeks of violence killing hundreds of Afghan civilians, according to the United Nations mission in Afghanistan.
Although a ceasefire was agreed in March, mediation from several countries has failed to produce a lasting resolution between the neighbors.
Security issues have proved a sticking point, especially Pakistan’s demand that Afghanistan curb the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militant group.