Pakistan launched airstrikes along its border with Afghanistan on Sunday, with Afghan officials reporting civilian casualties. The strikes were described by Pakistan as a response to "recent terrorist attacks against innocent people," including a suicide bombing in Karachi on Saturday that killed three members of the Pakistani paramilitary Rangers.
Afghanistan's Taliban government stated that the Pakistani strikes hit civilian homes, with casualties concentrated in Mandikhel, a village in the Paktika province. Pakistan, however, asserts that its operations targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces.
The Karachi attack was claimed by Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistan Taliban. Both the TTP and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar are banned in Pakistan and by the United Nations due to their involvement in past attacks. Pakistani officials reported arresting a fourth individual in connection with the Karachi attack, identified as an Afghan national.
Border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have persisted, with intermittent clashes and airstrikes occurring in the border region. These incidents have resulted in dozens of deaths in recent months, according to officials from both countries. In February, clashes led to numerous fatalities, and in March, a Pakistani strike on a Kabul drug rehabilitation center reportedly killed hundreds. Earlier in June, Pakistani air strikes targeting militants resulted in 26 militant deaths, but Afghan officials stated that 13 other people, predominantly children, were also killed in those strikes.
Afghanistan has previously accused Islamabad of unprovoked attacks that have resulted in civilian deaths, though Pakistan maintains its actions are solely directed at militants. The two countries had previously agreed to a ceasefire in October following weeks of intense clashes, but that truce has since collapsed.