Four civilians killed in Pakistani strikes in Afghanistan, Taliban says

Image source, AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, Flames and smoke rise from an area struck by an air strike in Kandahar on Thursday

Afghanistan's Taliban government said a wave of Pakistani air strikes had killed four civilians in the latest escalation between the two sides.

The strikes hit provinces including Kandahar, the Taliban's base of power, sources told the BBC. A resident told AFP news agency they heard a jet, followed by a large explosion and then a fire in the city.

Pakistan said its forces had struck 10 targets in Afghanistan, without specifying their locations, adding the strikes were "strictly limited to identified military objectives".

It's the second wave of Pakistani air strikes on Afghan territory in the past week, and comes after a deadly attack on a police facility in Pakistan on 18 September.

In a statement, the Taliban said there would be an "appropriate response" following the attack, while Pakistan said any further "provocative act" would be responded to.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attacks were in Afghanistan's Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces.

In Paktia, an official said jets had bombed the Afghan Armed Forces' 203 Mansouri Corps, which is controlled by the Taliban, without providing any information on casualties.

In Khost, a spokesman said houses were damaged in the strikes, with no casualties reported. Abdullah, a local eyewitness, told Reuters news agency the strikes happened around midnight.

"People were shouting, and there was panic all around," he said. "Afterwards, the village elder arrived and called out to the houses, asking if anyone was killed. Thankfully, no one was killed."

Another local, Salamat Khan, told Reuters that "there is no military base here, nor are there any military personnel", adding "there are only the homes of ordinary civilians".

Image source, EPAImage caption, A Taliban security official inspects the scene of Pakistani air strikes in Khost

Zabihullah Mujahid labelled the attack as "reckless, careless, and hostile", and said it "will have adverse consequences for the Pakistani military".

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah 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".

The Taliban and Pakistan had enjoyed three months of relative calm, until fighting reignited following an attack on a mosque at a police compound in north-western Pakistan last week, which killed at least 31 people, according to AFP.

A group linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has waged a violent campaign against Pakistan for years, claimed the attack.

Islamabad has accused Kabul of harbouring the TTP. Afghanistan's Taliban government denies this, saying militancy is Pakistan's internal problem.

Following the attack on the police facility, Pakistan said earlier this week it launched air strikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, killing 28 militants.

Farid Dehqan, a spokesman for the Taliban government in Kunar province, told the BBC that three people were killed and four others were injured in the strike. The UN mission Unama also confirmed that at least three civilians were killed.

Image source, Kunar Police OfficeImage caption, An attack in Afghanistan's Kunar province has killed at least three civilians, according to the UN

Then on Wednesday, Pakistan said it detected drones launched from Afghanistan into its territory and that all of them were "neutralised". Taliban officials denied that their government had launched drones against Pakistan that day.

Unama said in July that cross-border armed violence between Taliban government forces and Pakistani security forces killed at least 499 civilians and wounded 1,216 others between October 2025 and June 2026.

The worst single incident occurred in March, when more than 269 people were killed, external in a Pakistani air strike on Kabul, which the Afghan Taliban said hit a drug rehabilitation centre. Islamabad denied the charge, saying it "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".

The neighbouring countries had agreed a ceasefire in March, but international mediation has failed to produce a lasting resolution.

During a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly earlier this week, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called for "concrete and verifiable" measures to ensure that Afghan territory is not used for "terrorism".

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