Afghanistan says Pakistani airstrikes kill at least 6 civilians

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan on Friday of targeting homes in overnight airstrikes on Kabul and other areas of the country, saying at least six civilians were killed and more than a dozen others were injured.

Pakistan denied targeting civilians, as fighting between the neighbors entered its third week.

Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistani aircraft also struck fuel depots belonging to the private airline Kam Air near the airport in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. “This company supplies fuel to civilian airlines as well as to United Nations aircraft,” he said on a post on X.

Pakistan’s military carried out “successful airstrikes inside Afghanistan” as part of the ongoing operation, according to the Information Ministry. It said the strikes targeted four alleged militant hideouts and their support infrastructure in Afghanistan. The ministry said Pakistan did not target any civilian population.

On Friday, a roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle killed six officers in Lakki Marwat, a district in northwest Pakistan, police official Sajjad Khan said. No one claimed responsibility, but suspicion is likely to fall on the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which often claim such attacks.

The developments come amid a dramatic increase in tensions between the two countries — which Pakistan has referred to as “open war ” — adding to concerns about the stability in the region as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran continues with no end in sight, generating great uncertainty.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said it responded to Pakistan’s attacks by targeting Pakistani military installations in the Kohat district, causing heavy losses.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the TTP attempted to deploy three rudimentary drones in Kohat, but Pakistani forces shot them down. Two civilians were injured by falling debris, it said.

Mujahid claimed Pakistani strikes hit multiple civilian sites and uninhabited locations in Afghanistan’s Paktia and Paktika provinces, as well as other areas. He said the attacks “will not go unanswered.”

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said at least four civilians, including children, were killed in the city and 15 others were injured.

Afghanistan’s Department of Information and Culture in Nangarhar province said a Pakistani mortar shell killed a woman and a child.

The total number of casualties around Afghanistan was unclear.

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been targeting each other’s military installations since late February, when Kabul said it struck Pakistani posts in response to Pakistani attacks along the border. Pakistan’s military has said its operations targeted the TTP and its support networks along the border.

The ongoing dispute is rooted in Pakistan’s belief that Afghanistan’s Taliban government is harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival, India. The Taliban denies harboring militant groups.

Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy losses in what has become the deadliest fighting in years.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Friday said the military has killed 663 Afghan Taliban since the fighting began. There was no immediate comment from Kabul.

On Thursday, China’s special envoy Yue Xiaoyong arrived in Islamabad for talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Mohammad Sadiq, following a visit to Kabul.

Sadiq, Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said he and Yue “discussed threats posed by terrorist groups” and agreed on the need for collective efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability.

Repeated international community calls for restraint have had little effect. Pakistan has previously said its strikes along the border and inside Afghanistan are aimed solely at Khawarij, a phrase Islamabad uses for the TTP.

Since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, the TTP has intensified attacks inside Pakistan and along the border. Islamabad says its military operations will continue until Kabul takes verifiable steps to curb the TTP and other militants operating from its territory.

A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting in October, but several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to produce a lasting agreement.

___

Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.