Afghanistan vows to respond after Pakistani air strikes kill four

Pakistani air strikes on Afghanistan have killed at least four people, a spokesman for the Afghan Taliban government said, promising to deliver an “appropriate response”.

Pakistan said on Thursday it carried out air strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan used to store and launch drones, some of which were used in cross-border attacks.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the air strikes targeted Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces.

A resident in Kandahar city told the AFP news agency that an air strike hit the city in southern Afghanistan. The resident said they heard a jet, then a large explosion, followed by a fire in the centre of Kandahar city, AFP reported.

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said air strikes were “deliberate, precise, calibrated, and proportionate, and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan”.

He condemned a “deliberate and unlawful incursion into Pakistan by drones” on Wednesday.

“This constitutes a blatant violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and is a grave and unacceptable act of aggression,” he said.

Taliban officials denied that their government launched drones against Pakistan on Wednesday.

The air raids on Thursday were carried out as tensions grow between the former allies over attacks by armed groups in Pakistan, which triggered their worst fighting in years in February.

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring fighters who stage cross-border attacks, but Afghanistan’s Taliban government denies harbouring anti-Pakistani armed groups and says the attacks are Pakistan’s internal problem.

An attack on a police facility in northwestern Pakistan last week that killed at least 21 people has reignited ⁠fighting between the countries after nearly three months of ⁠relative calm. A Pakistan Taliban faction claimed responsibility for the blast and subsequent gun battle .

On Monday, air raids targeting three locations in northeastern Afghanistan killed three civilians in the Nurgal district of Kunar province, Afghan officials said. Islamabad said it killed 28 “terrorists”.

The escalation threatens mediation efforts by China, Turkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting peace between the two neighbours.

Relations between the former allies have been strained since the fighting in February, the worst for years.