Pakistan’s security forces carried out a ground operation near the Afghan border on Sunday before launching targeted strikes on suspected militant strongholds, leaving 29 fighters dead, reported Associated Press.
In a post on X, Afghanistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the operation was launched in response to multiple militant attacks across the country. There was no immediate response from Afghanistan. “The attacks resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of civilians, including women and children. We strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression and consider it a crime and an act of brutality,” the Minister said.
Crime and Aggression:
Last night, the Pakistani military once again carried out airstrikes on civilian areas in Gayan District of Paktika Province, Tsamkani District of Paktia Province, and Manogai District of Kunar Province, Afghanistan.— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) June 29, 2026
Pakistan has seen a rise in militant attacks targeting police and security forces in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban which is the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and allied groups for most of the violence.
The development comes a day after militants armed with firearms and explosives attacked the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in the southern port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another, whom the military identified as an injured Afghan national.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement on Saturday night. Tarar said Pakistan’s latest operation along the Afghan border targeted hideouts and safe havens of the Pakistani Taliban. The group is separate from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighbouring Afghanistan in 2021.
The latest operations are likely to further strain already tense ties between Islamabad and Kabul.
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Strikes mark latest in cross-border violence
Sunday’s cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military launched air strikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. The strikes ended about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an “open war” between the neighbouring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.
The escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action between the two sides. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan carried out retaliatory strikes after Pakistan launched air strikes inside Afghan territory.
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