Islamabad/Kabul, Mar 18: Pakistan on Monday carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan that killed eight civilians, including three children, Afghan Taliban said, amidst a war of words between the two neighbours for a spate of recent militant attacks in restive Pakistani cities.
A senior Afghan interim government official on Monday confirmed that strikes in the Afghanistan provinces of Paktika and Khost along the Pakistan border have taken place. There was no immediate reaction from the Pakistani side.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesperson of the Afghan rulers, alleged in a statement that Pakistani aircraft had carried out the airstrikes, the Dawn newspaper reported from Kabul.
At “around 3 am, Pakistani aircraft bombarded civilian homes” in Khost and Paktika provinces near the border with Pakistan, said Afghan interim government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, claiming that all eight people killed were women and children.
Mujahid said that Pakistani planes had bombed the Laman area in Paktika’s Barmal district.
Alleging that “houses of common people were targeted”, he said three women and three children were killed in Paktika and a house collapsed while two women were killed in Khost, where a house was destroyed as well.
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