Pakistan launches airstrikes on Afghanistan, killing at least three civilians and shattering months of relative calm

From the Newshound archive · first published 21 September 2026.

Pakistani jets struck militant positions in Kunar and Paktika provinces in eastern Afghanistan on Monday. The Taliban administration in Kabul put the civilian death toll at three, while Islamabad claimed 28 militants had been killed. Residential buildings and a shop were damaged or destroyed in the attacks; according to Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat, a family of three were killed and four more people were injured. Pakistan had warned Kabul it would carry out cross-border strikes following two deadly attacks on its security forces in recent days, including a raid on a police compound that left 31 dead. Relations between the two neighbours had already been deteriorating since February, when a severe flare-up produced some of the heaviest casualties seen between them in years.

The rival casualty figures — Pakistan's count of 28 militants versus Kabul's count of three civilians — cannot be independently verified.

Afghanistan's Taliban administration condemned the strikes, outright rejecting Pakistan's repeated claim that Kabul provides shelter to the insurgents behind cross-border attacks on Pakistani security forces.

Monday's escalation threatens to derail the mediation efforts China and other regional powers had been conducting between Islamabad and Kabul.