Pakistani security sources say Pakistan thwarted an attempted Afghan attack in Gulistan and killed several Afghan Taliban members. They gave no details of the alleged plan; intermittent gunfire continued in the border area, and the Taliban had not commented.
Tensions had returned after three months of relative calm. A police-facility attack in northwestern Pakistan last week killed at least 24 people. Pakistan said its airstrikes on Thursday hit 10 locations in Afghanistan that it claimed were used to launch and store drones. Monday’s strikes in the border region reportedly killed 28 militants; Afghan Taliban officials accused Pakistan of killing three civilians in overnight strikes.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of sheltering Islamist militants behind cross-border attacks. Afghanistan’s Taliban government denies this, saying militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem. The two countries have increasingly clashed over insurgencies along their western and northwestern border.
