Taliban officials in Afghanistan reported Wednesday that at least 46 people were killed in an eastern border region because of an overnight aerial bombing that allegedly was conducted by Pakistan.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesperson, stated that the attack on Tuesday evening targeted four locations in Barmal, a remote mountainous district in the Afghan border province of Paktika.
"The total number of dead is 46, most of whom were children and women," Mujahid told the Agence France-Presse news agency, adding that six more civilians were wounded. The veracity of his claims regarding the purported casualties could not be ascertained from independent sources.
The Taliban's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Wednesday that it had summoned the acting Pakistani ambassador to Kabul to deliver a “strong protest note regarding the airstrikes conducted by Pakistani military jets” in Barmal. The statement condemned the attack and warned that “such actions are viewed highly irresponsible and will inevitably bear repercussions.” It did not elaborate.
While Pakistan has not commented on the allegations it had carried out the strikes, Pakistani security officials told reporters on condition of anonymity that the country carried out counterinsurgency precision airstrikes in Barmal.
The officials, who were not authorized to interact with the media publicly, asserted that the military actions targeted multiple locations in the Afghan district that were associated with the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
Islamabad maintains that the globally designated terrorist group orchestrates lethal attacks on Pakistani civilians and security personnel from its Afghan sanctuaries.
The Afghan Ministry of National Defense condemned the strikes as “barbaric” and a “clear act of aggression” by Pakistan in violation of international laws. It asserted that both Afghan nationals and Pakistani refugee families residing in Barmal were the victims of the attack.
"The Islamic Emirate considers this brutal bombing a violation of international principles and a clear act of aggression," said the Afghan Ministry of National Defense, using the official title of the Taliban government. "This cowardly attack will not go unanswered," the statement warned, without elaborating.
The aerial attack came two days after heavily armed TTP militants stormed a security outpost in South Waziristan, a Pakistani district bordering Barmal, and killed 16 soldiers in one of the deadliest insurgent raids on Pakistan's military in recent months.
Tuesday's strikes also came on a day when Taliban leaders hosted meetings with a high-level Pakistani delegation, marking the resumption of such interactions after a yearlong pause because of terrorism allegations.
Taliban leaders have consistently denied allegations that Afghan territory is being used as a launching pad for attacks. The de facto Afghan government maintains it does not support the TTP or any other foreign militant group, describing the violence in Pakistan as an "internal problem" for the neighboring country to resolve rather than blaming Kabul for the crisis.
