Pakistani jets target suspected Pakistani Taliban hideouts in Afghanistan, killing 8 people

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistani airstrikes targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan early on Monday, the foreign ministry said. The Afghan Taliban said the attacks killed at least eight people and prompted return fire from their forces.

The exchange, two days after seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in a suicide bombing and coordinated attack in the country’s northwest, marked an escalation that is likely to further increase tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.

The Foreign Office in Islamabad confirmed the strikes, describing them as “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations in the border regions inside Afghanistan” and saying they targeted a splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban.

The Afghan Taliban denounced the strikes as an aggression on Afghanistan’s territorial integrity, and said later Monday their forces “targeted Pakistan’s military centers along the border with heavy weapons,” without providing details.

Earlier in the day, two Pakistani security and intelligence officials told The Associated Press the strikes were carried out in Khost and Paktika provinces bordering Pakistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters.

It was not immediately clear how deep inside Afghanistan the Pakistani jets flew for Monday’s strikes — the first since 2022, when Pakistan targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan. Islamabad never officially confirmed those strikes.

Chief Afghan Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said three women and three children were killed in the airstrikes the district of Barmal in Paktika while two other women were killed in a strike in Khost.

“Such attacks are a violation of Afghanistan’s