Islamabad says 28 suspected insurgents were killed but the Taliban government says three civilians died
The Pakistani air force struck alleged militant hideouts in eastern Afghanistan early Monday, killing at least three people and sharply escalating cross-border tensions.
The pre-dawn strikes in Nurgal district of Kunar province and Barmal district of Paktika province were in retaliation for a suicide bombing at a mosque in a police facility in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday which killed at least 16 people and injured scores of others.
Pakistani officials claimed 28 suspected militants were killed when its fighter jets and drones struck their targets in Patang area of Nurgal district as well as the Torkandi and Rukha areas of Barmal district, reports said. However, Afghanistan’s Taliban government said the strikes killed three civilians – one woman and two men.
Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said a home belonging to a villager named Noor Ahmad in Nurgal’s Pathan village was destroyed, killing him and two members of his family and wounding four other relatives.
Pakistan’s military has not yet issued a statement on the strikes.
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