At least 17 civilians, including 11 children, were killed in Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan late Saturday night, Feb. 21, Taliban officials said, sharply escalating tensions between the two sides.
The strikes, which occurred around midnight, targeted areas in Nangarhar province, including the districts of Behsud, Khogyani and Ghani Khil, as well as Barmal district in neighboring Paktika province, according to local Taliban officials and residents.
Quraishi Badloon, the Taliban’s director of information and culture in Nangarhar, said 17 civilians were killed and five others wounded in Behsud District alone. He described the victims as “noncombatants” and said 11 of those killed were children.
Tayeb Hamad, a spokesman for the Taliban police command in Nangarhar, said an airstrike hit a residential home in Behsud owned by a man identified as Shahabuddin. Twenty-three members of the family were buried under the rubble, he said. Five were pulled out alive and wounded, while others remained trapped.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting confirmed that its military had carried out airstrikes in parts of Nangarhar and Paktika but said the targets were “hideouts of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and ISIS-K,” referring to the Islamic State’s regional affiliate.
In a statement, the ministry described the strikes as “retaliatory,” carried out in response to recent suicide bombings and car bomb attacks during Ramadan, including attacks on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and incidents in Bajaur and Bannu. Pakistani authorities have said those attacks were claimed by the TTP and ISIS-K.
Taliban officials condemned the strikes and warned of consequences.
In a statement, the Taliban’s Ministry of Defense said it would respond at an “appropriate time” with a “calculated” reaction. The ministry accused Pakistan of targeting civilian areas and religious sites, calling the attacks evidence of “intelligence and security failures” within the Pakistani military.
Local residents in eastern Afghanistan reported hearing aircraft shortly before the explosions. Some said a religious school in Barmal District of Paktika Province was also struck, though casualty figures there were not immediately confirmed.
The cross-border airstrikes mark one of the most serious escalations in recent months between Pakistan and the Taliban, amid growing tensions over militant activity along their shared border.
Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban of allowing the TTP — a militant group that has waged a long insurgency against the Pakistani state — to operate from Afghanistan’s territory. Taliban officials deny the claim and insist they do not permit Afghanistan’s soil to be used against other countries.
As of Sunday, independent verification of the casualty figures was not available, and the full extent of the damage remained unclear.
