Pakistan said on Monday that its airstrikes on three targets inside Afghanistan killed 28 people it described as terrorists and suicide bombers, while Afghan authorities said the strikes killed three civilians and wounded four others in Kunar province. The two accounts describe the same cross-border operation but differ sharply over who was hit.
Pakistan’s Information Ministry announced the figure of 28 and described those killed as militants and suicide bombers. Reuters reported that the ministry did not provide identities or detailed evidence in its brief announcement. Margalla News is therefore keeping the casualty figure and description explicitly attributed to the Pakistani government.
Afghan officials said a house in Kunar’s Nurgal district was hit, killing three members of one family and injuring four people. Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said two locations in Barmal district of Paktika were also bombed, damaging a shop and an unoccupied house without reported casualties there.
Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strikes and said Afghanistan would respond appropriately. Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban authorities of harbouring armed groups that carry out attacks across the border; Kabul denies allowing Afghan territory to be used for attacks on Pakistan and says Pakistan’s militancy problem is internal.
The strikes followed major militant violence in northwestern Pakistan, including an attack on a police compound in Kohat and fighting in Hangu. Reuters reported that a group led by Hafiz Gul Bahadur claimed the Kohat attack.
Because Pakistan’s later statement and the Afghan casualty account have not been independently reconciled, Margalla News is not presenting either side’s characterization of all those killed as independently established fact. The story will be updated if further official detail or independent evidence clarifies the targets and casualties.