Pakistan says it struck 10 sites in Afghanistan after accusing Kabul of drone attacks

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept 24, (AP): Pakistan said it carried out airstrikes early Thursday on 10 sites in Afghanistan that it said were used to launch drone attacks against Pakistan a day earlier, a sharp escalation in their recent fighting that threatens international mediation efforts. In Afghanistan's southeastern Khost province, Mustaghfir Gurbaz, a spokesman for the province's governor, said Pakistani airstrikes had targeted several sites, including near the provincial center, at around 3:30 a.m., but that they had not caused any casualties.

The announcement of the strikes by Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar in a post on X came after officials said Afghanistan’s Taliban forces had fired eight drones and shelled Pakistani border posts after Pakistani troops foiled what they described as a cross-border infiltration attempt by militants. The Afghan government had no immediate comment.

However, Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Wednesday denied that Afghan forces had carried out any drone attacks on Pakistan. The conflicting statements came two days after Pakistani fighter jets struck sites in eastern Afghanistan that Islamabad said were militant hideouts. The accounts could not be independently verified.

The escalation threatens mediation efforts by China, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting peace between Kabul and Islamabad. Pakistan has repeatedly accused Afghanistan’s Taleban government of allowing militants to operate from its territory and carry out attacks across the border, an accusation Kabul denies.

"Instead of dismantling these networks and taking credible and verifiable action against those using Afghan territory to perpetrate terrorism against Pakistan, the Afghan Taleban regime has chosen to escalate the situation through hostile drone operations against Pakistan,” Tarar said. "The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan,” he added.

Pakistani officials also claimed Wednesday that security forces had neutralized eight rudimentary drones launched by the Afghan Taliban before they could enter the northwestern city of Kohat and the border town of Torkham, and that Afghan forces fired mortars and other heavy weapons at Pakistani border posts. Pakistani forces responded with artillery fire targeting Taliban border posts, mortar sites and defensive positions, they said.