“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns the bombings and the Pakistani attack on Afghan territory,” government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. “This is cruelty and paves the way for hostility between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We use all options to prevent a recurrence (of such attacks) and demand that our sovereignty be respected,” he said. “The Pakistani side must know that if a war breaks out, it will not be in the interests of either side. It will cause instability in the region. “ Pakistani military officials were not immediately available for comment. Hundreds of Khost residents took to the streets chanting anti-Pakistan slogans later Saturday. Protesters take part in a protest against Pakistani airstrikes in Khost on April 16, 2022. At least five children and a woman were killed in a province of eastern Afghanistan when Pakistani military forces fired rockets at a border crossing near the border. dawn [AFP]. Tensions on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have escalated since the Taliban seized power last year. Islamabad claims that militant groups are launching attacks in Pakistan from Afghan territory. The Taliban deny hosting Pakistani fighters and are outraged by the construction of a fence that raises Pakistan along its 2,700-kilometer (1,600-mile) border known as the Durad Line. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it was “deeply concerned” about the civilian deaths caused by the airstrikes and that the mission was verifying the extent of the casualties. “Five children and a woman were killed and a man was injured in Pakistani rocket attacks in the Shelton area of ​​Kunar,” Kunar provincial intelligence director Najibullah Hassan Abdal told AFP. Ehsanullah, a resident of Shelton district who has a name like many Afghans, said the attack was carried out by a Pakistani military aircraft. He confirmed the death toll. According to another Afghan government official, a similar attack took place before dawn in Afghanistan’s Khost province near the border. “Pakistani helicopters bombed four villages near the Durand line in Khost province,” he said on condition of anonymity. “Only civilian homes were targeted and there were casualties,” he added, without elaborating. TOLO News, Afghanistan’s leading private television channel, showed footage of houses destroyed in the Khost attack. “All the people targeted were innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the Taliban or the government,” said Rasul Jan, a Khost resident. “We do not know who our enemy is and why we were targeted.” The Afghan Foreign Ministry said it had summoned the Pakistani ambassador to Kabul to protest the attacks. “Such military offenses, including those of Khost and Kunar, must be prevented, as evils and vested interests will take advantage of these incidents,” Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told a Pakistani envoy on Saturday, according to a statement from the ministry.

Border tensions

On Thursday, at least seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an ambush by an armed group near the border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani military convoy in a former Pakistani Taliban stronghold, known as TTP, near the border with Afghanistan, was ambushed, causing a fierce exchange of gunfire in which seven soldiers and four soldiers were killed. was killed. [Al Jazeera] The statement said the ambush took place in the Isham area of ​​North Waziristan, an area in the volatile northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. “The Pakistani military is committed to eliminating the threat of terrorism and such sacrifices by our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,” the statement added. There was no immediate responsibility. The incident comes as the Pakistani military announced on Thursday that 128 militants had been killed in the area bordering Afghanistan since January. The military acknowledged that nearly 100 soldiers had been killed in such attacks over the same period. Paying tribute to the dead soldiers, Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad would “continue to fight terrorism”. North Waziristan – once called the “heart of the militancy” – is one of seven former semi-autonomous tribal areas in Pakistan where the military has conducted a series of operations since 2014 to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban.