Pakistani airstrikes kill 46 people in Afghanistan, Taliban official says

Six people are also injured in a bombing at four locations in Afghanistan

A police officer with a 12.7mm infantry machine gun takes position at Sarband Police Station's rooftop, in the outskirts of Peshawar, Pakistan, Feb 9, 2023. REUTERS/FILE

Bombardment by Pakistani military aircraft in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province on Tuesday killed at least 46 people, most of whom were children and women, the Afghan Taliban said, adding it would retaliate.

Six people were also injured in the bombing at four locations in Afghanistan, deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said on Wednesday.

Pakistani government and military officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Afghanistan's foreign office said it had summoned Pakistan's head of mission in Kabul to deliver a formal protest note to Islamabad on the bombing by Pakistani military aircraft, warning the diplomat of consequences of such actions.

"Afghanistan considers this brutal act a blatant violation of all international principles and an obvious act of aggression," Enayatullah Khowrazmi, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence, said in a statement. "The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered."

A Pakistani official with knowledge of the matter, but declining to be named, told Reuters Pakistan had carried out airstrikes against a camp of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) Islamist militant group.

TTP pledges allegiance to, and gets its name from the Afghan Taliban, but is not directly a part of the group that rules Afghanistan. Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.

A major TTP attack in Pakistan's South Waziristan area, which borders the location of the alleged camp targeted in Afghanistan, killed 16 Pakistani security personnel on Saturday.

Afghanistan's defence ministry identified those killed in Pakistan's bombardment as "mostly Waziristani refugees" - indicating that they were from Pakistan's Waziristan territory.

The neighbours have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several TTP attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil - a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.

Their relationship was complicated in March when the Taliban accused Pakistan of carrying out two airstrikes on its territory, killing five women and children.

Pakistan said at the time it had conducted "intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations" in Afghanistan but did not specify the nature of the operations.