Pakistan on Thursday confirmed it carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan, killing “terrorists.”
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told reporters in the capital Islamabad Pakistani security forces carried out a security “operation” on the “basis of solid evidence.”
“The intelligence-based operation was conducted by Pakistan in Afghanistan’s border areas,” Baloch said.
She said the operation was carried out “based on threats to the security of Pakistani citizens.”
The interim Taliban administration in Kabul on Tuesday night claimed that the Pakistani military carried out airstrikes, the second such cross-border action by Islamabad since March, in the Barmal district of eastern Paktika province.
Sharing details on Wednesday, the Taliban administration deputy spokesman Mullah Hamdullah Fitrat said the bombing by Pakistani jets killed 46 people, including women and children, and injured six others. He added houses were also destroyed.
However, Baloch rejected the reports Pakistan targeted children and women.
Kabul also lodged a protest with Islamabad by summoning Pakistan’s charge d’affaires in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has long accused Kabul of failing to crack down on TTP militants, who have reportedly been operating from Afghanistan.
Kabul denies the charge.
The TTP has carried out deadly attacks on Pakistani security forces, mainly in border regions, in recent months.
Following the airstrikes, the interim Defense Ministry in Kabul said the Taliban administration “will not leave this cowardly act unanswered.”