Pakistan has carried out its first airstrikes on Afghan territory since June, ending nearly three months of relative calm with attacks in two eastern provinces that Afghan Taliban officials said killed three people from one family.
The Pakistani air force struck early Monday in Kunar and Paktika, provinces bordering Pakistan. The attacks followed a bombing and gun battle at a police facility in Kohat, northwestern Pakistan, for which a Pakistan Taliban faction claimed responsibility.
An airstrike hit Nurgal district in Kunar at around 3 a.m. local time. Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said at least one house was hit, killing three members of the same family and injuring four others. He said the strike destroyed the house.
Initial accounts also said the attack in Nurgal destroyed a building and injured several people. The identities and status of those killed could not be independently verified.
Two further airstrikes hit Barmal district in Paktika at around 4 a.m. Fitrat said two locations were bombarded, destroying one shop and one unoccupied house. No casualties had been reported from those attacks.
Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the operation had targeted suicide bomber training facilities. The ministry said 28 'terrorists' were killed in air strikes on three targets in Afghanistan. That claim could not be independently verified.
Islamabad linked the strikes to the attack in Kohat, which targeted a mosque at a police facility on Friday. Pakistani officials said the blast and subsequent gun battle killed at least 21 people, mostly police officers. Pakistan's Ministry of Information said fighters based in Afghanistan had carried out the attack.
The exchange brings a fresh escalation in relations that have been strained since February, when Pakistan and Afghanistan fought their worst clashes in years. Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring armed groups that launch cross-border attacks from Afghan territory.
Afghanistan's Taliban government rejects those accusations and says the violence is Pakistan's internal problem. The competing accounts leave the central dispute unresolved: Pakistan says armed groups operate from Afghanistan, while Kabul denies responsibility for attacks inside Pakistan.
Monday's strikes were the first of their kind by Pakistan since June. They underline how quickly the period of reduced hostilities between the neighbours has given way to renewed cross-border violence.
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