Pakistan Carries Out Cross-Border Deadly Strikes into Afghanistan, Claims 29 Militants Killed; Kabul Says Civilians Died

ISLAMABAD, Jun 29: Pakistan said on Monday it carried out intelligence-based ground operations and precision strikes targeting alleged militant hideouts inside Afghanistan following a series of deadly attacks on its territory, including a weekend assault on a security facility in Karachi.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistani security forces first conducted an operation near the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Bajaur district, killing four militants, including senior commander Khan Farosh, also known as Zabal, from the Jamaat ul Ahrar group. He added that follow-up precision strikes targeted three locations in Afghanistan's eastern Paktia, Paktika and Kunar provinces, killing another 25 militants and destroying weapons caches.

The operations came a day after heavily armed militants stormed a security installation in Karachi, killing three paramilitary personnel before security forces killed three attackers and captured another wounded. Jamaat ul Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack.

Afghanistan's Taliban-led government rejected Pakistan's account, saying the airstrikes hit civilian areas and killed or wounded dozens of civilians, including women and children. Government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the strikes as a "crime" and an "act of brutality."

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan remain strained over cross-border militancy. Islamabad accuses Kabul of allowing militant groups to operate from Afghan territory, an allegation the Afghan government continues to deny.