Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border late Sunday, followed by airstrikes against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, according to Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar. The operation was a response to recent militant attacks across Pakistan, and Afghanistan condemned the strikes as a “cowardly act of aggression” and an “act of brutality.”

Civilian Casualties and Afghan Claims

Hamdullah Fitrat. The deputy spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, said Pakistani forces targeted a home in Chamkani district, in Paktia province, killing an elderly man and a child, while other family members were injured. When residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and wounding 158, as Six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan district, Paktika province, when another home was struck. A civilian home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but killing some 30 livestock.

Militant Activity and Cross-Border Tensions

Militant attacks targeting Pakistan’s police and security forces have surged in recent years, though Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban—known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP),and allied militant groups for most of the violence. The Pakistani Taliban are separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban that returned to power in 2021; the Pakistani security operation followed a militant attack targeting the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national in wounded condition — Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.

History of Border Conflicts

The two countries had agreed to a ceasefire last October following weeks of deadly clashes, while As with past internationally-mediated truce deals, however, that ceasefire has since fallen apart. The BBC has not independently confirmed the casualty figures claimed by the Pakistani and Taliban governments in the latest attacks, while Afghanistan’s Taliban government says the strikes hit civilian homes, while Pakistan says they were targeted at militant hideouts in Afghanistan’s Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces. Casualties were concentrated in Mandokhail, a village in the Paktika province, Taliban officials say.

Intermittent border clashes and airstrikes in the border area have killed dozens of people in recent months, according to officials in both countries. In February, clashes between the two countries left dozens of people dead. In March, a Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul killed hundreds. Earlier in June, Pakistan launched deadly air strikes that killed 26 militants. Afghanistan’s Taliban government said 13 people, mostly children, were also killed in the strikes.