Pakistani Strikes Kill Dozens in Afghanistan, Deepening Border Conflict

Pakistani airstrikes and ground operations struck the eastern Afghan provinces of Paktia, Paktika and Kunar late Sunday, killing dozens of people and sharply escalating a conflict between Islamabad and the Taliban government in Kabul that has run since February.

The two sides give sharply different accounts. Afghanistan's Taliban administration said at least 36 civilians were killed and more than 160 wounded, with women and children among the casualties. Pakistan said its forces killed 29 militants under an operation it named Ghazab Lil Haq and made no acknowledgment of civilian deaths, according to Al Jazeera. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) independently verified at least 28 civilians killed, including 22 in the Samkanai district of Paktia and six in Gayan district of Paktika, and said the toll could rise.

Pakistan's information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the operation was a response to a series of militant attacks, including an assault on the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three soldiers. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed that attack. Islamabad accuses Kabul of sheltering such fighters, a charge the Taliban government denies.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the strikes a "cowardly act of aggression," and an Afghan official said the action would "definitely be retaliated against in due time." India condemned the strikes. It was the second Pakistani cross-border air operation this month, following June 11 strikes that UNAMA said killed 13 civilians, and it came despite talks China hosted in April at which both governments said they would curb hostilities.