<\/p>\n
Pakistan launched multiple airstrikes on Saturday night targeting militants in neighbouring Afghanistan<\/a>, where the government reported children were among dozens of people killed and wounded.<\/p>\n Islamabad did not say in precisely which areas the strikes were carried out or provide other details.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Afghanistan said the strikes on border regions had killed and wounded \u201cdozens of people\u201d. \u201cLast night, they bombed our civilian compatriots in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, martyring and wounding dozens of people, including women and children,\u201d government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid posted on X.<\/p>\n Pakistan\u2019s information minister, Attaullah Tarar, wrote on X that the military conducted \u201cintelligence-based, selective operations\u201d against seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan<\/a> (TTP), and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of Islamic State was also targeted in the border region.<\/p>\n In October, Pakistan also conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.<\/p>\n Tarar said Pakistan \u201chas always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region\u201d, but added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remained a top priority.<\/p>\n The latest development came days after a suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the wall of a security post in Bajaur district in north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. The blast caused part of the compound to collapse, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.<\/p>\n Hours before the latest strikes, another suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the nearby Bannu district in the north-west, killing two soldiers.<\/p>\n After Saturday\u2019s violence, Pakistan\u2019s military warned it would not \u201cexercise any restraint\u201d and operations against those responsible would continue \u201cirrespective of their location\u201d, language that suggested rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.<\/p>\n Tarar said Pakistan had \u201cconclusive evidence\u201d that the recent attacks, including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad<\/a> and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, were carried out by militants acting at the \u201cbehest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers\u201d.<\/p>\n He said Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban<\/a> rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, but alleged that no substantive action had been taken.<\/p>\n He said Pakistan urged the international community to press Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used against other countries.<\/p>\n