Forty-six people were killed by Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid reported on Wednesday, December 25. « [Mardi] evening, Pakistani strikes were carried out in Barmal district of Paktika province »declared the spokesperson to Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The total number of martyrs is forty-six, most of whom are children and women”added Zabihullah Mujahid, specifying that there was also “six injured”.
The Afghan defense ministry denounced strikes “barbarians” and promised to respond to this ” assault “. “The Islamic Emirate [d’Afghanistan] will not let this cowardly attack go unanswered, but will instead consider the defense of its territory and its sovereignty as an inalienable right.said the ministry in a press release published Tuesday evening.
Pakistan hit “terrorist hideouts” in Afghanistan, for his part, a Pakistani security official told AFP on Wednesday on condition of anonymity, accusing Kabul of allowing anti-Pakistani attacks to be prepared on its soil.
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A very porous border
Since the return to power of the Taliban in Kabul in 2021, border relations between the two countries have worsened. Pakistan claims that armed groups, such as the Pakistani Taliban Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), carry out planned attacks from Afghan soil, across a very porous border.
On Saturday, sixteen Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack claimed by the Pakistani Taliban against a military base near the border with Afghanistan.
According to Zabihullah Mujahid, refugees from Waziristan were among the victims of Tuesday's strikes. Waziristan is one of the former semi-autonomous tribal areas of northwest Pakistan, where the Pakistani army carried out numerous operations against insurgents linked to Al-Qaeda and the Taliban after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by the United States.
Many people from tribal areas took refuge in Afghanistan after the launch in 2014 of a military operation which made it possible to drive out the TTP. Shooting by the Pakistani army against eastern Afghanistan in April 2022 left around fifty dead, Islamabad having demanded from Kabul “severe measures” against militants who attack its territory.
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