Key facts
- Pakistan launched airstrikes and sent ground troops into Afghan provinces along its western border.
- At least 100 people were killed or wounded, according to Taliban officials.
- Pakistan's information minister stated 29 militants were killed in targeted strikes.
- The strikes were a response to recent terrorist attacks, including one in Karachi that killed three paramilitary personnel.
- Afghanistan's Taliban government condemned the action as a "cowardly act" and "crime and atrocity," stating strikes hit civilian homes.
Pakistan launched airstrikes and sent ground troops into Afghan provinces along its western border on Sunday, killing dozens of civilians, according to officials. Afghanistan's Taliban government condemned the "cowardly act" and called it "a crime and atrocity," with Taliban officials telling BBC Pashto that at least 100 people were killed or wounded. Pakistan's information minister, Attaullah Tarar, stated that 29 militants were killed in strikes targeted at their hideouts, and that the operation was a response to "recent terrorist attacks against innocent people." These attacks included a suicide bombing at the headquarters of the Sindh Rangers, a Pakistani paramilitary force, in Karachi the previous day, which killed three personnel and three militants. Pakistani officials arrested a fourth attacker, who was an Afghan national. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the TTP, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack. Afghanistan's Taliban government claims the Pakistani strikes hit civilian homes in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces, with casualties concentrated in Mandikhel village in Paktika. Pakistan maintains its strikes were solely targeted at militant hideouts. Tensions between the two nations have been high, with Pakistan accusing Afghanistan of harbouring terrorists and the Taliban government rejecting these claims and accusing Islamabad of unprovoked attacks. A ceasefire agreed upon in October has since collapsed.