Pakistan strikes Afghanistan, 36 civilians killed as border tensions surge

Kabul,UPDATED: Jun 29, 2026 13:44 IST

At least 36 civilians were killed and more than 160 others injured in overnight airstrikes by Pakistani forces in Afghanistan, Afghan officials said on Monday, as tensions between the two neighbours escalated further.

Pakistan said its security forces had carried out a ground operation along the border late on Sunday, followed by strikes on militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the action was launched in response to multiple militant attacks in Pakistan.

Afghanistan condemned the strikes as a "cowardly act of aggression" and an "act of brutality". Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, said Pakistani forces hit a house in Chamkani district of Paktia province, killing an elderly man and a child and injuring other family members. He said that when local residents gathered to rescue those inside, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158.

Fitrat said six people, mostly women and children, were also killed in a village in Giyan district of Paktika province when another house was hit. He added that a civilian home in Kunar province was struck as well, causing no casualties but killing around 30 livestock.

Militant attacks on Pakistan's police and security forces have risen sharply in recent years. Pakistani authorities have blamed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and allied groups for most of the violence. The Pakistani Taliban are separate from, but allied with, the Afghan Taliban, who returned to power in 2021.

The Pakistani operation followed a militant attack on the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi, in which three soldiers were killed. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another wounded assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.

Sunday's cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan's military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. The action ended about a month of relative calm after what Islamabad had described as an "open war" between the neighbouring countries, despite international efforts to broker peace. The latest escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action, with hundreds killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghan territory. Several rounds of talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire, although China hosted both sides in April and later said they had agreed not to escalate and to explore a solution.

The latest strikes have added to the growing strain between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with both sides reporting military action and militant violence even after repeated attempts to prevent further escalation.

With PTI Inputs

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