Overview
- Pakistan said its air operation inside Kunar, Jost and Paktika provinces killed 26 Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan fighters and destroyed insurgent sites based on what it called credible intelligence.
- Afghan officials and local reporters said the strikes hit homes and killed civilians, reporting at least 12 deaths that include 11 children and a separate report of nine killed and ten wounded in the village of Mane.
- Journalists from AFP observed a destroyed house in Mane and neighbors digging graves, while Kabul’s spokesman described strikes on multiple border provinces that struck civilian areas.
- Islamabad framed the strikes as retaliation for recent deadly attacks inside Pakistan and accused Afghan authorities of harboring TTP fighters, an allegation Kabul denies and India rejects when accused of sponsoring militants.
- The fresh bombardment risks breaking a fragile truce negotiated in talks hosted by China and follows a UNAMA report that documented hundreds of Afghan civilian casualties in earlier rounds of cross-border fighting.