Taliban Retaliates Against Pakistani Airstrikes

Afghan Taliban militants targeted four locations in Barmal city of Paktika province, near the Dand Wa Patan, Tri Mangal, and Torkham border crossings in Paktia and Khost provinces, in response to the Pakistani army’s airstrikes.

The fighting concluded after Pakistani army artillery attacks on border areas in eastern Afghanistan, leading to the retreat of Taliban militants.

The Taliban’s defense ministry stated that Taliban forces had attacked the bases and hideouts of ISIS and their supporters (Pakistan) in the southeast, which were the sources of the attacks on Afghanistan, without providing details of the attacks on Pakistani territory.

Afghan media reported that 19 Pakistani soldiers and three Afghan civilians were killed in the clashes, and two border checkpoints were captured by the Afghan Taliban. The Taliban set fire to Pakistani border guard equipment and left the area after capturing the checkpoints.

The videos and images released by Taliban media are old and unrelated to today’s attacks.

Pakistani media denied these reports, stating that one border guard was killed and seven were wounded. They also claimed that five Taliban militants were killed in an artillery attack by the Pakistani army on Dandpatan town in Paktia province.

These clashes continue the political tension between the Pakistani government and the Afghan Taliban over the Afghan Taliban’s support for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Taliban’s counterclaims of Pakistan’s support for ISIS. The Taliban claim to have carried out the attacks in response to a Pakistani army airstrike on Barmal in Paktika province on January 5, which killed at least 46 people in Afghanistan and sparked a strong reaction from the Taliban. Pakistan claims to have assassinated senior commanders of the Pakistani Taliban, including Shir Zaman (Mukhlis Yar), Abu Hamza, and Akhtar Mohammad, and destroyed the group’s media center, Omar Media.