Afghanistan condemns Pakistan as U.N. mission says airstrikes killed 10 civilians, “most of them children”

Islamabad — Pakistan launched new airstrikes in Afghanistan overnight, killing at least 10 people, most of them children, the United Nations mission in the country said Thursday.

Islamabad claimed the attacks targeted militants with Pakistani insurgent groups who have mounted attacks on the country, but Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused the neighboring nation of aggression, saying the strikes hit civilian homes, killing women and children.

“UNAMA has confirmed that at least 10 civilians were killed, most of them children, and 9 people injured in airstrikes,” the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan said in a statement shared on social media. UNAMA did not attribute the strikes to Pakistan, but no other nation has claimed recent aerial attacks on Afghanistan.

The strikes targeted areas in Afghanistan’s Kunar and Helmand provinces, and chief spokesperson for the Afghan regime Zabihullah Mujahid said three civilian homes were destroyed. 

He condemned the Pakistani bombing as an act of aggression.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information presented a sharply different account.

In a statement sent to CBS News, the ministry said the strikes were intelligence-driven, “well planned and calibrated” and hit militant hideouts and camps at two locations, and that “initial reports suggest the killing of 22 terrorists.” 

The ministry claimed “large quantities of weapons and ammunition” were also destroyed in the strikes.

“The threat to Pakistan emanates from Afghanistan,” Pakistan’s information ministry said. “Our action precisely targeted the terrorist hubs.”

“Maximum precautions were taken and it was ensured that no collateral damage occurs,” it said, adding that its attacks would “continue at full pace to wipe out” alleged terror groups operating in Afghanistan.

Videos circulating from the scene of strikes in Helmand province, near the Pakistan border, showed people searching through the rubble of a destroyed mud-wall house, finding remains.

Ebad Khan, a resident in Kunar province, told CBS News one of the strikes hit a home belonging to a family that had moved in only a day earlier.

“They had children and livestock. They had just moved from another district,” he said. “Unfortunately, all six members of the family were killed, including children.”

Repeated cross-border clashes between the neighbors have escalated this year, with Pakistan carrying out airstrikes inside Afghanistan on multiple occasions. The countries have long accused each other of allowing terrorist groups to operate along their shared border, plotting attacks on civilians and security forces.

According to UNAMA, the clashes have caused more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan this year alone.