In a statement, the Taliban said there would be an “appropriate response” following the attack, while Pakistan said any further “provocative act” would be responded to, BBC reported.
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Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the attacks were in Afghanistan’s Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces.
In Paktia, an official said jets had bombed the Afghan Armed Forces’ 203 Mansouri Corps, which is controlled by the Taliban, without providing any information on casualties.
In Khost, a spokesman said houses were damaged in the strikes, with no casualties reported. Abdullah, a local eyewitness, told Reuters news agency the strikes happened around midnight.
“People were shouting, and there was panic all around,” he said. “Afterwards, the village elder arrived and called out to the houses, asking if anyone was killed. Thankfully, no one was killed.”
Another local, Salamat Khan, told Reuters that “there is no military base here, nor are there any military personnel”, adding “there are only the homes of ordinary civilians”.
Zabihullah Mujahid labelled the attack as “reckless, careless, and hostile”, and said it “will have adverse consequences for the Pakistani military”.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the strikes were “deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate, and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan”.
The Taliban and Pakistan had enjoyed three months of relative calm, until fighting reignited following an attack on a mosque at a police compound in north-western Pakistan last week, which killed at least 31 people, according to AFP.
A group linked to Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has waged a violent campaign against Pakistan for years, claimed the attack.
Islamabad has accused Kabul of harbouring the TTP. Afghanistan’s Taliban government denies this, saying militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.


