Native residents and civil protection staff look on as a bulldozer clears the rubble of a home hit by a cross-border Pakistani military strike within the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026.
Hedayat Shah/AP
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Hedayat Shah/AP
KABUL, Afghanistan — Pakistan’s army killed at the least 70 militants in strikes alongside the border with Afghanistan early Sunday, focusing on what it described as hideouts of Pakistani militants it blamed for current assaults contained in the nation, the deputy inside minister stated.
Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan’s deputy inside minister, advised Geo Information that at the least 70 militants have been killed within the strikes. He provided no proof. Pakistan’s state-run media later reported that militant casualties from the strikes jumped to 80.
The Afghan protection ministry stated in an announcement that “various civilian areas” within the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in jap Afghanistan have been hit, together with a spiritual madrassa and a number of civilian houses. The assertion known as the strikes a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.
Afghan authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid earlier on X stated the assaults “killed and wounded dozens, including women and children.”
Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, the provincial director of the Afghan Crimson Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, stated 18 folks have been killed and several other others wounded.
Clearing rubble and burying the useless
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs summoned Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul and handed him a word of protest over the Pakistani strikes. In an announcement, the ministry stated defending Afghanistan’s territory is the Islamic Emirate’s “Sharia responsibility” and warned that Pakistan can be liable for the implications of such assaults.
On Sunday, villagers have been seen clearing rubble in Nangarhar following airstrikes, whereas mourners have been making ready for funerals of these killed. Habib Ullah, a neighborhood tribal elder, stated these killed within the strikes weren’t militants. “They were poor people who suffered greatly. Those killed were neither Taliban, nor military personnel, nor members of the former government. They lived simple village lives,” he advised The Related Press.
Pakistan’s Data Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the army carried out “intelligence-based, selective operations” in opposition to seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and its associates. He stated an affiliate of the Islamic State group was additionally focused.
Tarar stated Pakistan “has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region,” however added that the security and safety of Pakistani residents remained a prime precedence.
Pakistan blames Afghans for suicide bombings
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan lately, a lot of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist teams. The TTP is separate from however intently allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of working from inside Afghanistan, a cost each the group and Kabul deny.
Hours earlier than the Pakistani strikes, a suicide bomber focused a safety convoy within the border district of Bannu in Pakistan’s northwest, killing two troopers, together with a lieutenant colonel. Pakistan’s army warned after the assault that it might not “exercise any restraint” and that operations in opposition to these accountable would press on.
One other suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden car final week into the wall of a safety publish in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, killing 11 troopers and a toddler. Pakistani authorities later stated the attacker was an Afghan nationwide.
Tarar stated Pakistan had “conclusive evidence” that the current assaults, together with a suicide bombing that focused a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, have been carried out by militants performing on the “behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers.”
He stated Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to forestall militant teams from utilizing Afghan territory to launch assaults in Pakistan, however alleged that no substantive motion had been taken. Tarar additionally requested the worldwide group to press Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments underneath the Doha settlement to not enable their soil for use in opposition to different international locations.
In Islamabad, safety analyst Abdullah Khan stated the Pakistani strikes recommend that Qatari, Turkish and even Saudi-led mediations have did not resolve tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “These strikes are likely to further escalate the situation,” he stated.
The Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the 2 international locations happened after lethal border clashes in October, killing dozens of troopers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence adopted explosions in Kabul that Afghan officers blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, on the time, carried out strikes deep inside Afghanistan to focus on militant hideouts.
The truce between Islamabad and Kabul has largely held, however a number of rounds of talks in Istanbul in November failed to provide a proper settlement, and relations stay strained.
