Pakistani airstrikes hit Afghan border: counter-terror operation, or killing civilians?
Pakistan's military says cross-border airstrikes hit 'terrorist hideouts' and killed 26 militants along the Afghan frontier; Afghanistan's Taliban government says the same raids killed at least 13 people — including, it says, 11 children, a woman and an elderly man — and were a deadly violation of sovereignty. Each side gives sharply different casualty accounts.
The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.
Pakistan says the strikes were a counter-terrorism operation against anti-Pakistan militants (the TTP) who shelter on Afghan soil to launch attacks across the border — and that they hit 'terrorist hideouts,' killing 26 militants, according to a Pakistani minister.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid says the air attacks on Afghan border provinces killed at least 13 people, including 11 children, a woman and an elderly man — calling them a deadly violation of Afghan sovereignty after a period of relative calm. (Casualty figures are the Taliban's account.)
