Pakistan said it carried out airstrikes early Thursday on 10 locations in Afghanistan that it claimed were used to launch drone attacks against Pakistan a day earlier, sharply escalating tensions between the two countries and raising concerns over ongoing mediation efforts.
The strikes hit areas in the southern and eastern Afghan provinces of Kandahar, Paktia and Khost, killing four civilians, Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement.
“These shameless acts of aggression and attacks by the Pakistani military regime will be met with an appropriate response,” he said.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced the strikes after officials said Afghan Taliban forces had launched eight drones and shelled Pakistani border posts following an attempted cross-border infiltration by militants, which Pakistani troops said they had foiled.
Tarar also posted aerial footage on X that appeared to show several strikes hitting large compounds in Kandahar and Khost.
He said the air and drone strikes destroyed militant hideouts and support facilities, including drone launch and storage sites, at 10 locations in areas controlled by the Taliban. According to Tarar, the sites were linked to attacks on civilians in Pakistan and Wednesday’s drone incursions.
Mujahid rejected Pakistan’s claims that Afghanistan had launched drone attacks and warned that Pakistan would face “consequences” for the airstrikes.
The latest strikes came days after Pakistani fighter jets hit sites in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, which Islamabad said were militant hideouts.
The escalation could complicate mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to help establish lasting peace between Kabul and Islamabad.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban government in Afghanistan of allowing militants to use its territory to launch attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul has denied the allegations.
“Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable action against those using Afghan territory to perpetrate terrorism against Pakistan, the Afghan Taliban regime has chosen to escalate the situation through hostile drone operations against Pakistan,” Tarar said.
He described the Pakistani strikes as “deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate,” saying they were limited to identified military targets directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan.
Pakistani officials also said Wednesday that security forces had neutralized eight makeshift drones launched by the Afghan Taliban before they could reach the northwestern city of Kohat and the border town of Torkham.
They also said Afghan forces had fired mortars and other heavy weapons at Pakistani border posts, prompting Pakistani forces to respond with artillery fire targeting Taliban border posts, mortar positions and defensive sites.
The four officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the latest escalation with the media.
Pakistan’s Information Ministry said 28 militants were killed in Monday’s airstrikes. Afghan authorities, however, said at least three civilians were killed and four others injured. The U.N. mission in Afghanistan confirmed the civilian casualties, and Kabul formally protested the strikes.
On the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar expressed concern over what he said was the presence of more than two dozen anti-Pakistani militant groups in Afghanistan.
Monday’s airstrikes followed a gunbattle with militants in Hangu, a district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border, that killed six Pakistani security personnel.
Days earlier, a suicide bomber attacked a mosque inside a police compound in nearby Kohat.
Eight gunmen then stormed the compound, leading to a 20-hour gunbattle that killed at least 21 people, most of them police officers. No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Pakistani authorities blamed the violence on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups.
The Pakistani Taliban, formally known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, have intensified attacks on Pakistani security forces since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021.