islamabad
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Pakistan said its military was responding to an attack launched by the Afghan Taliban early Thursday, marking the latest escalation in violence between the neighboring countries.
Pakistan’s intelligence ministry said that “Taliban regime forces are being punished in Chitral, Khyber, Mohmand, Kurram and Bajar districts” and called the earlier attack on Afghanistan “unprovoked”.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry said: “Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety of its people.”
Pakistan claimed that initial reports showed “heavy casualties” on the Afghan side and that multiple Afghan military positions and equipment had been destroyed. Afghanistan did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Afghan forces launched an attack on Pakistani positions early Thursday in retaliation for a Pakistani airstrike on a militant camp across the Afghan border on Sunday that killed at least 18 people.
Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy Taliban government spokesman, claimed that Afghan forces had killed 40 Pakistani soldiers and captured 15 Pakistani border posts in northeastern Kunar province, adding that Kabul forces were deployed along the 1,600-mile Durand Line, a disputed border between the two countries. Pakistan’s military did not immediately respond and CNN is unable to independently verify the claims.
Pakistan’s airstrikes on Sunday targeted camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and its affiliates, as well as Islamic State affiliates, which Islamabad blames for a series of attacks in Pakistan, the intelligence ministry said.
Pakistan has witnessed deadly attacks for several weeks and says it has “conclusive evidence” that they were carried out by militants on the “orders of Afghan-based leaders and leaders.”
A fragile ceasefire between the two countries has been in place since October following the deadliest wave of cross-border violence in years.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif said in an interview with CNN in November that his country wants to “eliminate” the TTP leadership in Afghanistan and would use “all means available to us.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
