Pakistan launched airstrikes on Afghanistan early Wednesday, hitting militant positions in the eastern provinces of Khost, Kunar, and Paktika and ending more than a month of relative calm along the contested border.
Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed the operation in a post on X, saying the strikes were “precise and calibrated” and destroyed four targets, including a training center, a hideout, an ammunition cache, and positions belonging to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders Aleem Khan Khushali and Akhtar Muhammad Jani Khel. Pakistan reported 26 fighters killed.
In the aftermath of recent terrorist incidents in Pakistan, including terrorist attack on Federal Constabulary Post in Musa Dara on 9 June 2026, Vehicle Borne Suicide Attacks on a Military Post in North Waziristan on 2 June 2026 and Police Station in Bannu on 9 May 2026, precise… pic.twitter.com/rY0PGC6YIu
— Attaullah Tarar (@TararAttaullah) June 10, 2026
Tarar’s statement, published by Dawn, described the dead as “India-sponsored khawarij,” a religious pejorative used by Pakistani officials to delegitimize TTP fighters, one day after India publicly rebuked Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council on June 9.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government reported a different toll. Spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said 13 civilians were killed, including 11 children, with 14 others wounded. In Khost’s Spera district, nine members of one family died when a strike collapsed their home. Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires in Kabul to formally protest the strikes.
Tarar cited three TTP attacks as justification: a police station bombing in Bannu on May 9, a vehicle-borne suicide attack in North Waziristan on June 2, and an assault on a Federal Constabulary post in Musa Dara on June 9.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan reported 372 Afghan civilian casualties from cross-border conflict in the first quarter of 2026 alone. Pakistan and Afghanistan’s border has remained closed since October 2025, with fighting since February displacing more than 100,000 people.
The Taliban administration has consistently denied harboring TTP elements and has rejected all Pakistani strikes as violations of Afghan sovereignty.
