Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan’s second-in-command Amjad was among four militants killed by security forces while attempting to infiltrate through the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the army said on Thursday, September 30, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AP

In Kabul, the Afghan Defense Ministry condemned the airstrikes by Pakistan, saying the bombing targeted civilians, including women and children. It said that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region.
| Photo Credit: X/@MoDAfghanistan2

Pakistan in rare airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan on Tuesday (December 24, 2024), dismantling a training facility and killing some insurgents, four security officials said.

“The strikes were carried out in a mountainous area in Paktika province bordering Pakistan,” said the officials. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media on the record. It was unclear whether the jets went deep inside Afghanistan, and how the strikes were launched.

No spokesman for Pakistan’s military was immediately available to share further details. But it was the second such attack on alleged hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban since March, when Pakistan said intelligence-based strikes took place in the border regions inside Afghanistan.

In Kabul, the Afghan Defense Ministry condemned the airstrikes by Pakistan, saying the bombing targeted civilians, including women and children. It said that most of the victims were refugees from the Waziristan region.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers this a brutal act against all international principles and blatant aggression and strongly condemns it,” the Ministry said.

Local residents said at least eight people, including women and children, were killed in the airstrikes by Pakistan. They said the death toll from the strikes may rise.

In a post on the X platform, the Afghan Defense Ministry said the Pakistani side should know that such unilateral measures are not a solution to any problem.

“The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered but rather considers the defense of its territory and territory to be its inalienable right,” it said.

The strikes came hours after Mohammad Sadiq, Pakistan’s special representative for Afghanistan, traveled to Kabul to discuss a range of issues, including how to enhance bilateral trade, and improve ties.

Mr. Sadiq during the visit met with Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s acting interior minister, to offer his condolences over the Dec. 11 killing of his uncle Khalil Haqqani. He was the minister for refugees and repatriation who died in a suicide bombing that was claimed by a regional affiliate of the Islamic State group.

Mr. Sadiq in a post on X said he also met with Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and he “held wide ranging discussions. Agreed to work together to further strengthen bilateral cooperation as well as for peace and progress in the region.”

A delegation of the pro-Taliban Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam also visited Kabul on Tuesday (December 24, 2024) to convey condolences over the killing of Haqqani’s uncle.

Editorial: Blowback | On Pakistan, Afghanistan and insurgency

Islamabad often claims that the Pakistani Taliban use Afghan soil to launch attacks in Pakistan, a charge Kabul has denied.

Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad-based security expert, said Tuesday’s (December 24, 2024) airstrike “represents a clear and blunt warning to Pakistani Taliban that Pakistan will use all the available means against the terrorist outfit both inside and outside its borders.”

“However, it is not an indiscriminate use of force and due care was taken by Pakistan in ensuring that only the terrorist bases were hit and no civilian loss of life and property took place,” he said.

The Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 and the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, whose leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan.

The TTP has stepped up attacks on Pakistani soldiers and police since November 2022, when it unilaterally ended a cease-fire with the government after the failure of months of talks hosted by Afghanistan’s government in Kabul. The TTP in recent months has killed and wounded dozens of soldiers in attacks inside the country.

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest which borders Afghanistan, in recent years. Representative image
| Photo Credit: AP

All 10 militants who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into a Pakistani military facility were killed in an 18-hour operation, officials said July 16, adding that militants in a separate attack on a health facility killed five civilians.

In its statement, the Pakistani military said eight soldiers were killed when a suicide bomber early on Monday rammed his explosive-laden vehicle into the outer wall of an army housing complex in Bannu, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The suicide attack

A splinter group of Pakistani Taliban, led by a militant commander Gul Bahadur, claimed the attack, which has been denounced by the country’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi and other officials.

The military said the suicide attack collapsed a portion of the wall and damaged nearby infrastructure, resulting in the killing of the eight soldiers.

Responding to the attack, security forces killed all ten attackers, it said. The military said a “timely and effective response by the security forces prevented major catastrophe.”

Pakistan has consistently raised its concerns with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, the military adds, “asking them to deny persistent use of Afghan soil by the terrorists and to take effective action against such elements.”

The military said Pakistan’s armed forces “will keep defending the motherland and its people against this menace of terrorism and will take all necessary measures as deemed appropriate against these threats emanating from Afghanistan.”

There was no immediate comment from Kabul.

Surge in militant attacks

Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks, mostly in the northwest which borders Afghanistan, in recent years.

In a separate incident, five civilians, including two women health workers and two children, were killed on Tuesday when militants opened fire at a health facility in the northwestern district of Dera Ismail Khan, the military said in a statement.

In a statement, troops stationed nearby responded to the attack, killing three of the attackers. However, two soldiers were also “martyred” in the ensuing shootout, it said.

The military said that those behind the killings of innocent people “will be brought to justice.”

No one claimed responsibility for the attack on the health facility.

However, most such previous attacks on civilians and security forces have been blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP.

They are a separate group but also an ally of the Afghan Taliban. TTP has stepped up its attacks on security forces across the country since the Afghan Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021.

A group of militants used kerosine to set fire to a girls’ school in a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold, destroying furniture, computers and books, police said Wednesday, in the latest in a surge in such attacks.

No one was hurt in the overnight attack in North Waziristan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, local police official Rehmat Ullah said. Two other girls’ schools in the region were bombed earlier this month.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but authorities suspect Islamic militants, who targeted girls’ schools years ago, saying that women should not be educated.

North Waziristan is a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban, who are also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. It is a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021. The Taliban’s takeover in Afghanistan has emboldened the Pakistani Taliban.

There was no immediate comment by Pakistan’s military and the Taliban government in Afghanistan denounced the strikes, which are likely to further increase tension between the neighbouring countries.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

“Pakistani airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of Pakistani Taliban inside Afghanistan early Monday (March 18), two days after insurgents killed seven soldiers in a suicide bombing and coordinated attacks in the northwest,” two security officials said.

There was no immediate comment by Pakistan’s military and the Taliban government in Afghanistan denounced the strikes, which are likely to further increase tension between the neighbouring countries.

Two Pakistani security and intelligence officials said the airstrikes were carried out in Khost and Paktika provinces bordering Pakistan. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media on the record.

The officials provided no further details, and it was unclear whether jets went deep inside Afghanistan. The Pakistani Taliban also confirmed Monday’s strikes in a statement.

Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that Pakistan’s airstrikes in Barmal distirct in Paktika killed three women and three children while two other women were killed in the strike in Khost province.

The airstrikes came two days after a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden truck into a military post in northwest Pakistan, killing seven soldiers.

Pakistani troops also came under attack on March 16 and they killed all six militants responsible in a shootout in North Waziristan, a district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province that borders Afghanistan.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari attended the funerals of the soldiers and vowed to retaliate for their killings, saying “the blood of our martyred soldiers will not go in vain.” Saturday’s attack on the military post was claimed by a newly formed militant group, Jaish-e-Fursan-e-Muhammad. However, Pakistani security officials believed the group mainly is comprised of members of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, which often targets Pakistani soldiers and police.

Syed Muhammad Ali, an Islamabad based security expert, said Monday’s strikes were in retaliation for a series of TTP attacks, especially the one on Saturday in Mir Ali in which an Army lieutenant colonel and captain were among those killed.

He said the Pakistani strikes came within 24 hours of Mr. Zardari’s promise of strong retaliation. “It also indicates that Pakistan’s patience for the Afghan interim government’s continued hospitality for terrorists conducting frequent attacks on Pakistan from inside Afghanistan has finally run out,” he said.

The Pakistani Taliban are a separate group but are allies of the Afghanistan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 as the U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout. The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan emboldened TTP, whose top leaders and fighters are hiding in Afghanistan.

Though the Taliban government in Afghanistan often says it will not allow TTP or any other militant group to attack Pakistan or any other country from its soil, the Pakistani Taliban have stepped up attacks inside Pakistan in recent years, straining relations with the Afghan Taliban government.