Afghan Taliban hit ‘several points’ in Pakistan in retaliation for attack | Taleban news

The attack comes days after the Taliban vowed to retaliate for a Pakistani airstrike inside Afghanistan.

Afghan Taliban militants have targeted “several points” in neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said, days after Pakistani jets carried out bombings inside the country.

A statement from the Defense Ministry on Saturday did not specify whether Pakistan had been struck, but said the attack was carried out “across the line of reasoning” – a term used by Afghan authorities when referring to the long-disputed border with Pakistan. .

“Several points beyond the projection line, which serve as centers and hideouts for terrorists and their supporters who plan and organize attacks in Afghanistan, were aimed at retaliating in the east of the country,” the ministry said.

Asked if the statement was referring to Pakistan, ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi said: “We do not consider it as Pakistani territory, therefore, we cannot confirm this location, but it was on the other side of the line of speculation.”

Afghanistan has for decades rejected the border, known as the Durand Line, which was drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through a mountainous and often lawless belt of land between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No details of casualties or specific target areas were given. Pakistan’s military public relations unit and a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a security source told AFP news agency on Saturday that at least one soldier of the Pakistani army was killed and seven others were wounded in a firefight with Afghan forces.

Ongoing clashes, including heavy weapons, broke out overnight between troops on the border between Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Afghanistan’s Khost province, officials from both countries said.

The incidents come after the Afghan Taliban accused Pakistan of killing 46 people, mostly women and children, in airstrikes near the border this week.

Islamabad said it was looking for militant hideouts along the border, and Afghan authorities warned on Wednesday that they would retaliate.

The neighbors have strained relations, with Pakistan claiming multiple attacks on its territory have been launched on Afghan soil – a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – which shares the same ideology as its Afghan counterparts – last week said it had raided a military base near the border with Afghanistan, which Pakistan said killed 16 soldiers.

“We want a good relationship with them [Afghanistan] but TTP should be stopped from killing our innocent people,” said Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in his Cabinet address on Friday.

“This is our red line.”