Pakistani Airstrikes Kill 36 Afghans   06/29 06:28

   Overnight ground operations and strikes by Pakistani forces killed at least 
36 civilians and wounded more than 160 others, Afghan officials said Monday, as 
tensions between the neighbors further escalated. One Afghan official said the 
attacks would be met with retaliation.

   KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Overnight ground operations and strikes by 
Pakistani forces killed at least 36 civilians and wounded more than 160 others, 
Afghan officials said Monday, as tensions between the neighbors further 
escalated. One Afghan official said the attacks would be met with retaliation.

   Pakistani security forces carried out a ground operation along the 
Pakistan-Afghanistan border late Sunday, followed by strikes against militant 
hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, Pakistan's Information Minister 
Attaullah Tarar said. Pakistan said the operations were launched in response to 
multiple militant attacks across Pakistan.

   Afghanistan condemned the strikes as a "cowardly act of aggression" and an 
"act of brutality." Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi, the deputy minister for 
publications at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said Afghanistan would 
respond "in due time."

   "The military regime in a cowardly manner bombed Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar 
provinces last night," Farahi said. "This will definitely be retaliated against 
in due time. The decisions of the regime are not made based on emotions, but 
rather serious measures are taken at the right time."

   Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan's Taliban 
government, said the Pakistani forces targeted a home in Paktia's Chamkani 
district, killing an elderly man and a child, while other family members were 
wounded. When residents gathered to rescue people, the area was struck again, 
killing 28 villagers and wounding 158, he said.

   Six people, mostly women and children, were killed in a village in Giyan 
district, Paktika province, when another home was struck, he said. A civilian 
home in Kunar province was also hit, causing no casualties but killing some 30 
livestock.

   Pakistani officials said an uneasy calm prevailed along the 
PakistanAfghanistan border Monday, with security forces remaining on high 
alert.

   Envoys summoned over attacks

   On Monday, Afghanistan and Pakistan summoned each other's top diplomats to 
protest the attacks.

   Zia Ahmad Takal, the Afghanistan Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesman, 
accused Islamabad of repeatedly blaming Afghanistan for security incidents 
inside Pakistan without "credible evidence."

   Pakistan's behavior "seriously harms the atmosphere of trust between the two 
countries, good neighborly relations and the security and stability of the 
region," Takal said.

   Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it summoned Afghanistan's top 
diplomat in Islamabad to protest the involvement of Afghan nationals in recent 
attacks, including one in Karachi over the weekend.

   Tarar, the Pakistani information minister, shared three videos on X that he 
said showed projectiles striking sprawling camps and safe havens of 
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar and Fitna al-Khwarij in Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika and Kunar 
provinces. Tarar said the overnight strikes killed "terrorists" and destroyed 
weapons and ammunition stockpiles.

   Tarar said Pakistan's relentless counter-terrorism campaign "will continue 
at full pace to wipe out the menace of foreign-sponsored and supported 
terrorism from the country."

   Pakistan uses the phrase "Khawarij" to refer to Indian-backed Pakistani 
Taliban and other militants. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar is a breakaway faction of the 
Pakistani Taliban.

   India however, strongly denied any involvement, with Foreign Ministry 
spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal calling the statements "baseless allegations." 
Pakistan should "look inwards, take credible action against the terror 
infrastructure on its territory," he said.

   Militant attacks targeting Pakistan's police and security forces have surged 
in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and 
allied militant groups for most of the violence. The Pakistani Taliban are 
separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban that returned to power in 2021.

   Pakistan launches operation after assault in Karachi

   The Pakistani security operation followed a militant attack targeting the 
regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three 
soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another 
assailant, whom the military identified as a wounded Afghan national.

   Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack.

   Officials in Pakistan claimed one Afghan suspect was captured following the 
attack, proving that "Afghan soil and Afghan nationals continue to be used to 
orchestrate terrorist attacks inside Pakistan." Police later released the 
statement of the wounded Afghan detainee, who confessed the Karachi attack was 
planned by JamaatulAhrar, though it remained unclear if the confession 
was made under duress.

   Sunday's cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three 
weeks after Pakistan's military launched airstrikes on what it said were 
militant hideouts in Afghanistan. They ended about a month of relative calm 
following what Islamabad had described as an "open war" between the neighboring 
countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.

   The escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action. Hundreds of 
people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when 
Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes 
inside Afghan territory.

   Multiple rounds of talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. China 
also hosted the two sides in April and Beijing later said Pakistan and 
Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate their conflict and to explore a solution.