Pakistan Conducts Airstrikes and Ground Operations in Afghanistan, Resulting in Civilian Casualties

Kunar. Pakistan conducted airstrikes and deployed ground forces in Afghanistan's border provinces on Sunday, resulting in the deaths of at least 28 civilians.

According to the United Nations Afghan Mission (UNAMA), another 49 people were injured in this attack, and the victims included women and children. The Taliban government of Afghanistan has called this act a cowardly act and an atrocity, stating that civilian homes were attacked.

On the other hand, Pakistan claims to have targeted the hideouts of militants in Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces. Although a ceasefire agreement was reached between the two countries after weeks of deadly clashes last October, it has now been broken.

According to Taliban officials, the Mandokhel village in Paktia province suffered the most damage. Local resident Adam Khan, 63, told the AFP news agency that he could not describe in words the condition of the children he saw in the hospital and the cries of their parents. He informed that children, the elderly, and women sleeping in a house were killed in the attack.

The Taliban government claims that the death toll of civilians has reached 36 and more than 160 have been injured. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said that 29 militants were killed in this operation conducted in response to recent terrorist attacks on innocent people. However, the numbers claimed by both sides could not be independently verified.

This attack occurred a day after a suicide attack on the headquarters of the Pakistani paramilitary force Sindh Rangers in Karachi, in which three security personnel and three militants were killed. The responsibility for that attack was claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a rebel faction of the TTP.

Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of harboring terrorist groups carrying out cross-border attacks, which the Taliban government denies. Kabul also accuses Islamabad of attacking civilians without provocation, causing loss of life.

Dozens of people have been killed in clashes and airstrikes in the border areas between the two countries in the past few months. Earlier, dozens were killed in clashes in February, and in March, hundreds lost their lives in a Pakistani attack on a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul.

Similarly, in early June, 26 militants and 13 civilians were killed in an airstrike by Pakistan.