Pakistan says it killed at least 70 militants in strikes along Afghan border

The truce between Islamabad and Kabul has largely held, but several rounds of talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement.

Islamabad said it carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan early Sunday, targeting what it called hideouts of Pakistani militants it blamed for recent attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan Red Crescent Society said more than a dozen people were killed.

Pakistan didn’t specify the locations targeted, but the Afghan defense ministry said in a statement “various civilian areas” in the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in eastern Afghanistan were hit, including a religious madrassa and multiple civilian homes.

The statement called the strikes a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid earlier on X said the attacks “killed and wounded dozens, including women and children.”

Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, the provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, said 18 people were killed and several others wounded.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul and handed him a note of protest over Pakistani strikes. In a statement, the ministry said protecting Afghanistan’s territory is the Islamic Emirate’s “Sharia responsibility” and warned that Pakistan would be responsible for the consequences of such attacks.

On Sunday, villagers were seen clearing rubble in Nangarhar following airstrikes, while mourners were preparing for funerals of those killed. Habib Ullah, a local tribal elder, said those killed in the strikes were not militants. “They were poor people who suffered greatly. Those killed were neither Taliban, nor military personnel, nor members of the former government. They lived simple village lives,” he told The Associated Press.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the military conducted “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of the Islamic State group was also targeted.