Pakistan Airstrikes Kill 10 in Afghanistan, Breaking Fragile Ceasefire

Pakistan Airstrikes Kill 10 in Afghanistan, Breaking Fragile Ceasefire
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Pakistan launched airstrikes on Afghan territory late Friday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 12 others, breaking a 48-hour ceasefire that had briefly paused a week of deadly border clashes, officials told AFP.

The strikes hit three locations in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, according to a senior Taliban official who said the group “will retaliate.” A provincial hospital official confirmed that civilians, including two children, were among the dead. The Afghanistan Cricket Board said eight players participating in a regional tournament were also killed.

The border truce, which began on Wednesday, had halted escalating violence that left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead on both sides. The clashes intensified after explosions in Kabul coincided with a visit to India by the Taliban’s foreign minister — a move Pakistan viewed with suspicion.

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif accused Kabul of acting as a “proxy of India” and warned that “wherever the source of terrorism is, it will have to pay a heavy price.”

The Taliban denied harboring Pakistani Taliban (TTP) militants, a claim Islamabad repeated on Friday, demanding “concrete and verifiable” action from Kabul.

According to the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), at least 37 people have been killed and more than 425 wounded since the fighting began.