Taliban accuses Pakistan of bombing civilians — RT World News
At least eight people were reportedly killed when Afghan militants exchanged fire across the border with the Pakistani army
The Afghan Taliban government accused Pakistan of killing eight civilians in an airstrike on Monday. The Islamist group responded by opening fire on Pakistani targets, wounding seven people.
Pakistani planes “Bombing civilian homes” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement, in the early hours of Monday morning. Mujahid said that the bombing killed eight people in the provinces of Paktika and Khost, located on the border with Pakistan.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry did not comment on the alleged civilian casualties but said the Pakistan Air Force launched the attack “Intelligence-based counter-terrorism operations” Against Taliban-sponsored terrorist groups operating in the two provinces. These groups include the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group and the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which Islamabad says has used Afghanistan as a launching pad to launch attacks on Pakistani soil.
The Taliban denies harboring the Pakistani Taliban. Although Hafiz Gul Bahadur once led a Taliban faction in Pakistan, his current relationship with Kabul is unclear.
The latest of these attacks was on Saturday, when a suicide bomber drove a truck loaded with explosives into a military checkpoint in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. A splinter group from the Pakistani Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed seven Pakistani soldiers.
Mujahid said that Taliban fighters responded to the air strikes on Monday by targeting Pakistani military sites with heavy weapons. Pakistani officials told Al Jazeera that three soldiers and four civilians were injured by mortar shells.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which has long experience in the struggle for freedom against the world’s superpowers, does not allow anyone to invade its territory.” The Taliban spokesman said.
Although Pakistan is an ally of the United States available Military and financial aid to the Taliban before and during the US invasion of Afghanistan. This relationship has been strained since then, as Pakistan fenced its side of the Afghan border and deported hundreds of thousands of Afghans late last year. Mutual killings have become common along the border since 2022, with the Pakistani government accusing the Taliban of harboring terrorists and Kabul accusing Islamabad of violating Afghan sovereignty.
No country officially recognizes the Taliban government, which took power in Kabul in 2021 during the final phase of the US troop withdrawal. The United Nations does not recognize the group's authority over Afghanistan, which is what the Taliban did He was interrupted Power-sharing talks in Qatar
You can share this story on social media:
Source link
