Kabul: Pakistan carried out airstrikes in two Afghan provinces overnight, with Afghanistan saying Thursday that nine women and children were killed and another 11 people wounded in the bombings.

Pakistan’s Information Ministry said the strikes targeted militant hideouts at two locations and that “initial reports suggest” that 22 militants had been killed. The casualty claims from both sides could not immediately be independently verified.

The strikes come amid renewed cross-border tensions between the two countries, which have repeatedly traded accusations over militant activity along their shared border. Pakistan has carried out a series of airstrikes inside Afghanistan, saying it is targeting militant groups responsible for attacks in Pakistan, while Afghanistan has denied harbouring such militants.

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The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan said last week that it had documented more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan from cross-border violence so far this year. Pakistan denies targeting civilians and says its military operations are directed at militants who carry out attacks inside Pakistan. Afghanistan, meanwhile, denies harbouring militant groups.

How the Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict escalated

Relations between the two neighbours have deteriorated sharply since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Pakistan initially viewed the Taliban government as a potential ally, but tensions grew as attacks by the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a separate militant group allied with the Afghan Taliban, increased inside Pakistan. Islamabad has accused Kabul of allowing the TTP and other militants to operate from Afghan territory, an allegation the Afghan Taliban government denies.

The tensions escalated into direct cross-border fighting in late 2025 and intensified dramatically in February 2026 after Pakistan launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan and Afghan forces retaliated. Pakistan described its actions as strikes against militant targets, while Afghanistan reported civilian casualties. UNAMA recorded 185 civilian casualties — 56 killed and 129 injured — from cross-border clashes between February 26 and March 5 alone.

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The fighting later eased following Chinese-mediated talks that produced a ceasefire in March, but the underlying dispute over militant activity remained unresolved. By the end of June, UNAMA had documented 499 civilians killed and 1,216 wounded in cross-border fighting between October and June. Pakistan has rejected such accounts and said its military operations were directed exclusively at identified terrorist hideouts, sanctuaries and support infrastructure.

The latest escalation follows a period of relative calm that ended in September after deadly militant attacks in northwestern Pakistan. Islamabad subsequently resumed airstrikes on targets inside Afghanistan, while Kabul accused Pakistan of violating its sovereignty. Reuters reported that the two countries share a 2,600-kilometre border and that the latest escalation has again brought the neighbours into direct confrontation.