Pakistani troops destroy Afghan Taliban posts amid rising tensions

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s military targeted and destroyed several Afghan Taliban posts in a remote southwestern region on Wednesday in what officials described as a response to “unprovoked aggression,” signaling rising tensions between the neighbors.

Two security officials said Pakistan also struck hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban near the town of Chaman, in southwestern Balochistan province. A day earlier, a mortar shell fired by the Afghan Taliban hit a house there, killing one civilian and wounding two others. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said Pakistani forces had thwarted “malicious intentions” of militants through timely action, adding that they were giving a “befitting response” to aggression.

The developments came two days after Afghan officials said mortars and missiles fired from Pakistan struck a university and homes in northeastern Afghanistan, killing seven people and wounding at least 85.

Pakistan has denied targeting a university or carrying out any such strikes.

According to the U.N. humanitarian agency, hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan have continued in recent weeks at a lower intensity following talks between the two countries held in China.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said periodic shelling this month, including mortar rounds fired into Afghan territory from April 19-21, damaged a school and a health facility in Afghanistan’s Kunar province. Its report said mortar fire and airstrikes in Asadabad city, and in the Sarkani and Marawara districts of Kunar, on Monday reportedly killed at least seven people and wounded 79.

The report added that infrastructure was also damaged, including a fuel station in Asadabad’s Yargul area, part of a student accommodation wing at Kunar University, the Directorate of Pilgrimage and Religious Affairs, and a drug rehabilitation center.

Afghan and Pakistani officials had met in western China in early April and agreed not to escalate their conflict and “explore a comprehensive solution,” China’s government had said after mediating the talks.

Pakistan has seen a surge in attacks in recent years, many claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring militants that carry out deadly attacks inside Pakistan, especially the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP. The group is separate from but allied with the Afghan Taliban, which took over Afghanistan in 2021 following the chaotic withdrawal of U.S.-led troops. Kabul denies the charge.

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Associated Press writer Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece contributed to this report.