Afghanistan’s defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had launched attacks inside Pakistan in retaliation for last week’s deadly airstrikes.
Last Tuesday, Pakistan launched an operation to destroy a training facility and kill insurgents in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province. Dozens of people including women and children lost their lives in this attack.
A Taliban defense ministry statement posted on social media X said its forces targeted locations in Pakistan that were “centers and hideouts for insurgents and their supporters who have launched organized and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan”.
Ministry spokesman Enayetullah Khwarazmi did not provide any further information about the attack. He did not say how the operation was carried out or whether any party was injured.
However, pro-Taliban newspaper Hurriyat Daily News quoted ministry sources as saying that 19 Pakistani soldiers and 3 Afghan civilians were killed in the operation. No one at Pakistan’s foreign ministry was immediately available for comment.
Manager Rashidullah Hamdard said Afghanistan’s counter-attack was celebrated with joy in the country’s southeastern Khost province.
Thousands of people took to the streets to express their joy and pledge their support to the Afghan military against Pakistan.
“Everyone earlier raised angry slogans against Pakistan’s actions, saying ‘Pakistan Murdabad’,” Hamdard said. All Afghans are brothers and so it is necessary that the entire nation and government should take pride in their blood”.
Pakistani officials have accused the Taliban of not doing enough to counter militant activity across the border, a charge the Taliban deny. They say they don’t allow anyone to attack any other country from Afghanistan.