Pakistan said on Thursday, September 24, that it carried out airstrikes on 10 sites inside Afghanistan, marking a new escalation in tensions between the two neighbours. Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the operation followed alleged drone and shell attacks on Pakistani border positions a day earlier.
Pakistani officials had said eight drones were sent from the Afghan side and that border posts came under shelling. Kabul had earlier denied a Pakistani allegation that Afghan Taliban forces attacked Pakistani positions. There was no immediate new formal response from the Afghan authorities to Thursday’s announced strikes.
Independently verified casualty and damage figures from the latest operation were not immediately available. Pakistan’s description of the 10 sites and their alleged use for attacks remains an attributed government claim rather than an independently established fact.
The strikes follow Pakistani air operations inside Afghanistan on September 21. UNAMA later confirmed at least three civilians were killed and four wounded in apparent strikes in Kunar, while Pakistan said it had targeted militant sites.
Thursday’s operation comes amid renewed border firing, drone allegations and sharply conflicting accounts from Kabul and Islamabad. Further confirmation is awaited on the locations hit, casualties and an official Afghan response.