Dozens killed as Pakistan targets Afghan militants
INTERNATIONAL – ASIA
30 JUNE 2026
- Pakistan launched its deadliest attack on Afghanistan in months, with Islamabad saying it killed dozens of militants as the Afghan government reported civilian casualties.
- The Taliban regime said the air strikes hit three eastern provinces, killing 36 civilians and wounding 163.
- The night-time strikes are the latest flare-up of violence between the neighbours whose relationship has been fraught since 2021, when the Taliban government took power in Kabul, and follow a weeks-long war that erupted in February 2026.
- Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said air and ground operations killed 29 militants and were aimed at Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter group of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a group that it blames for a deadly assault in Karachi.
- On 27th June, explosives were detonated and gunmen opened fire inside a Rangers paramilitary camp in Karachi, killing three personnel.
- Afghan authorities have repeatedly denied their territory harbours attackers.
- The Pakistani operation along the border is the deadliest since March 2026, when an attack on a drug treatment centre in Kabul killed hundreds according to the United Nations.
- On Saturday,
- Pakistan says its forces use “precise targeting” to aim at militant hideouts and weapons stores, especially those of the TTP that has waged a violent campaign against it for years.
