Pakistani strikes kill 46 in Afghanistan

(Kabul) The Taliban government has promised to respond to strikes by Pakistan that left 46 dead in eastern Afghanistan, which a Pakistani security official presented on Wednesday as targeting “terrorist hideouts”.

” Last night [mardi]”Pakistani strikes were carried out in four areas of Barmal district in Paktika province,” Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP.

“The total number of martyrs is 46, most of whom are children and women,” he said, adding that there were also “six injured”.

Since the Taliban's return to power in 2021, border tensions between the two countries have escalated.

Pakistan claims that armed groups, such as the Pakistani Taliban Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who claim the same ideology as those in Kabul, carry out planned attacks from Afghan soil, across a very porous border.

The Taliban government has always denied harboring foreign armed groups using Afghan soil to launch attacks against its neighbors.

Denouncing “barbaric” strikes, the Afghan Defense Ministry promised to respond to this “clear aggression”.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had summoned the Pakistani charge d'affaires in Kabul on Wednesday afternoon, criticizing “the attempt by certain Pakistani circles to want to create mistrust between the two countries”.

Afghanistan “will not accept any violation of its territorial integrity”, indicated Afghan diplomacy, affirming that “the country is entirely ready to [se] defend ”

“Credible evidence”

A Pakistani security official said the raids, carried out by “planes and drones”, targeted “terrorist hideouts”, rejecting Taliban claims that civilians had died.

At least 20 Pakistani Taliban died in the strikes, according to this source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

In a hospital in the town of Sharan, an AFP correspondent saw several shocked and injured children, including one on a drip and another wearing a head bandage.

Malil, a resident of Barmal, told AFP that a bombing had hit “two or three houses yesterday evening [mardi] after 8 p.m. (10:30 a.m. Eastern).”

“In one house, 18 people were killed, an entire family,” according to this resident.

According to the Pakistani security official, the new strikes are partly motivated by the attack carried out on Saturday against a Pakistani military base near the border with Afghanistan.

Claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, it killed 16 soldiers.

“These strikes [en Afghanistan] will continue if and when necessary,” he warned, indicating that Pakistan’s patience was “running out.”

“The interim Taliban regime has been the subject of repeated calls to act against the TTP, but its response has been limited,” he said, accusing the “Taliban regime” of “facilitating” the passage of fighters to across the border.

According to a UN Security Council report from July, around 6,500 TTP fighters are based in Afghanistan, where they are tolerated and supported by the Afghan Taliban who provide them with weapons and allow them to train.

Refugees

In March, eight civilians were killed in Pakistani air force strikes in eastern Afghanistan, leading to clashes between the two countries.

And in April 2022, shots by the Pakistani army against eastern Afghanistan left around fifty dead. Islamabad had demanded “severe measures” from Kabul against militants who attack its territory.

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 the Al-Qaeda network and the Taliban after the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan by the United States and its NATO allies.

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.

In a statement, the TTP accused Islamabad of “deliberately targeting refugee residences”.