UN says Pakistan airstrikes killed 28 civilians in eastern Afghanistan
UNAMA said Pakistani airstrikes killed at least 28 civilians and wounded 49 in eastern Afghanistan, as both sides hardened claims over a widening border conflict.
Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan killed at least 28 civilians and wounded 49 others, with women and children among the victims, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said. The mission said the strikes hit Paktya, Paktika and Kunar provinces on the evening of June 28 and warned the toll was preliminary and could rise as hospitals continued treating the wounded.
Afghan officials put the casualties higher, saying 36 civilians were killed and more than 160 were injured across the east. The Taliban government called the strikes an "atrocity", sharpening a dispute that now sits at the center of a broader confrontation over whether Pakistan is striking militants or hitting civilians inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan said its forces were conducting an intelligence-based ground operation followed by "calibrated strikes" against militant hideouts and safe havens. Pakistani officials said the operation killed 29 fighters overall, then added that airstrikes on three targets in Paktia, Paktika and Kunar killed 25 militants and ground attacks in Bajaur killed four more fighters linked to Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. The military tied the offensive to what it described as a recent surge in attacks inside Pakistan.
That surge included an attack on a Rangers headquarters in Karachi on June 27, where Pakistan’s military said three paramilitary Rangers personnel were killed and four wounded. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar claimed responsibility for that attack, giving Pakistani commanders a fresh justification for cross-border retaliation as they face mounting pressure over militant violence at home.
The latest strikes also deepen a deterioration in Pakistan-Afghanistan relations that has been building since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. UNAMA previously reported 372 Afghan civilians killed and 397 injured in the first three months of 2026 from cross-border violence, a level of harm that has made the frontier one of the region’s most volatile flashpoints.
Analysts said the confrontation had already escalated to talk of "open war" earlier in 2026, after Pakistani airstrikes on Kabul in October 2025 and a March 16, 2026 bombing in Kabul that reportedly killed more than 140 civilians. The latest civilian deaths in Paktya, Paktika and Kunar add to the risk that each new strike will trigger another round of retaliation, while the Pakistan military’s accusations that the Taliban are sheltering Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan militants keep the two sides locked in a cycle that threatens border security far beyond the latest blast radius.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
