Pakistan claims to have killed no less than 70 militants in strikes on Afghan border : NPR

[ad_1] <img src="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/1100/quality/50/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F1b%2Fffeb5bc54e0f9b5acdef3753fa3a%2Fap26053266170792.jpg" data-template="https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/6000x4000+0+0/resize/{width}/quality/{quality}/format/{format}/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F97%2F1b%2Fffeb5bc54e0f9b5acdef3753fa3a%2Fap26053266170792.jpg" class="img" alt="Local residents and civil defense workers look on as a bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026." fetchpriority="high"/> Native residents and civil protection staff look on as a bulldozer clears the rubble of a home hit by a cross-border Pakistani military strike within the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. Hedayat Shah/AP conceal caption

toggle caption

Hedayat Shah/AP KABUL, Afghanistan — Pakistan's army killed no less than 70 militants in strikes alongside the border with Afghanistan early Sunday, concentrating on what it described as hideouts of Pakistani militants it blamed for current assaults contained in the nation, the deputy inside minister stated.

Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan's deputy inside minister, advised Geo Information that no less than 70 militants had been killed within the strikes. He supplied no proof. Pakistan's state-run media later reported that militant casualties from the strikes jumped to 80.

The Afghan protection ministry stated in an announcement that "numerous civilian areas" within the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in jap Afghanistan had been hit, together with a spiritual madrassa and a number of civilian houses. The assertion referred to as the strikes a violation of Afghanistan's airspace and sovereignty.

Afghan authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid earlier on X stated the assaults "killed and wounded dozens, together with ladies and kids."

Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, the provincial director of the Afghan Pink Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, stated 18 folks had been killed and a number of other others wounded.

Clearing rubble and burying the lifeless Afghanistan's Ministry of International Affairs summoned Pakistan's ambassador to Kabul and handed him a be aware of protest over the Pakistani strikes. In an announcement, the ministry stated defending Afghanistan's territory is the Islamic Emirate's "Sharia duty" and warned that Pakistan can be answerable for the results of such assaults.

On Sunday, villagers had been seen clearing rubble in Nangarhar following airstrikes, whereas mourners had been getting ready for funerals of these killed. Habib Ullah, a neighborhood tribal elder, stated these killed within the strikes weren't militants. "They had been poor individuals who suffered vastly. These killed had been neither Taliban, nor army personnel, nor members of the previous authorities. They lived easy village lives," he advised The Related Press.

Pakistan's Data Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the army carried out "intelligence-based, selective operations" in opposition to seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and its associates. He stated an affiliate of the Islamic State group was additionally focused.

Tarar stated Pakistan "has all the time strived to take care of peace and stability within the area," however added that the security and safety of Pakistani residents remained a high precedence.

Pakistan blames Afghans for suicide bombings Militant violence has surged in Pakistan lately, a lot of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist teams. The TTP is separate from however carefully allied with Afghanistan's Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of working from inside Afghanistan, a cost each the group and Kabul deny.

Hours earlier than the Pakistani strikes, a suicide bomber focused a safety convoy within the border district of Bannu in Pakistan's northwest, killing two troopers, together with a lieutenant colonel. Pakistan's army warned after the assault that it could not "train any restraint" and that operations in opposition to these accountable would press on.

One other suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden car final week into the wall of a safety publish in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, killing 11 troopers and a toddler. Pakistani authorities later stated the attacker was an Afghan nationwide.

Tarar stated Pakistan had "conclusive proof" that the current assaults, together with a suicide bombing that focused a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, had been carried out by militants performing on the "behest of their Afghanistan-based management and handlers."

He stated Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to forestall militant teams from utilizing Afghan territory to launch assaults in Pakistan, however alleged that no substantive motion had been taken. Tarar additionally requested the worldwide neighborhood to press Afghanistan's Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments underneath the Doha settlement to not enable their soil for use in opposition to different nations.

In Islamabad, safety analyst Abdullah Khan stated the Pakistani strikes counsel that Qatari, Turkish and even Saudi-led mediations have did not resolve tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. "These strikes are prone to additional escalate the state of affairs," he stated.

The Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the 2 nations took place after lethal border clashes in October, killing dozens of troopers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence adopted explosions in Kabul that Afghan officers blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, on the time, carried out strikes deep inside Afghanistan to focus on militant hideouts.

The truce between Islamabad and Kabul has largely held, however a number of rounds of talks in Istanbul in November failed to supply a proper settlement, and relations stay strained.