At least ten people, including nine children, were killed overnight Monday to Tuesday as a result of Pakistani attacks in Afghanistan, a Taliban government spokesman said, against a backdrop of high tensions between the two neighbors. “Last night, around midnight, in Khost province, Pakistani forces bombed the house of a civilian. Nine children (five boys and four girls) and one girl were killed,” wrote Zabihullah Mujahid in X, also referring to another attack in the Kunar and Paktika border regions, which left four people injured.
This comes amid tensions with Islamabad and a day after a suicide attack on the headquarters of Pakistani security forces in a province bordering Afghanistan, which was not immediately claimed.
On November 11, another attack in front of a court in Islamabad left 12 people dead and dozens injured and was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban, which shares the same ideology as the Taliban that regained power in Kabul in 2021. Islamabad later accused the “terrorist cell” of having been “directed and guided in every step by the Afghanistan-based high command”.
After armed confrontations of rare intensity in October, the two countries agreed to a fragile ceasefire, the form of which they have not been able to determine despite several rounds of talks, barring security concerns.
