ISLAMABAD (AP) 鈥� security forces Sunday carried out a ground operation along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, followed by 鈥渃alibrated strikes鈥� against militant hideouts and safe havens, killing 29 fighters, officials said.
In a post on X, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the operation was launched in response to multiple .
In Afghanistan, government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistan’s attacks resulted in the deaths and injuries of dozens of civilians, including women and children.
鈥淲e strongly condemn this cowardly act of aggression and consider it a crime and an act of brutality,鈥� he said.
targeting police and security forces in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, and allied militant groups for most of the violence.
The security operation took place a day after militants armed with guns and explosives in the southern port city of Karachi, killing three soldiers. Security forces killed three attackers and arrested another assailant, whom the military identified as an Afghan national in wounded condition.
Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the Karachi attack in a statement Saturday night.
Tarar said Pakistan鈥檚 latest operation along the Afghan border targeted hideouts and safe havens of the Pakistani Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban are a separate militant group from the Afghan Taliban, although the two are allies. The Afghan Taliban returned to power in neighboring Afghanistan in 2021.
The latest operations are likely to further strain already tense relations between Islamabad and Kabul.
Strikes are the latest in cross-border violence between neighbors
Sunday鈥檚 cross-border strikes and ground operation came less than three weeks after Pakistan’s military launched airstrikes on what it said were militant hideouts in Afghanistan. They ended about a month of relative calm following what Islamabad had described as an 鈥渙pen war鈥� between the neighboring countries, despite international efforts to broker a lasting peace.
The escalation follows months of tit-for-tat military action between the two countries. Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border fighting since February, when Afghanistan launched retaliatory strikes after Pakistan carried out airstrikes inside Afghan territory.
Multiple rounds of talks have failed to secure a lasting ceasefire. China also hosted the two sides in April and Beijing later said Pakistan and Afghanistan had agreed not to escalate their conflict and to explore a solution.
along the border and inside Afghanistan, targeting alleged hideouts of TTP and other militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan鈥檚 Afghan Taliban government of harboring militants who carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, especially the TTP. Kabul denies the charge.
___
Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writers Abdul Qahar Afghan in Kabul; Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this story.
Copyright © 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed.
