Pakistan hits Afghanistan sites after drone attacks

Pakistan has conducted air strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan that it says were used to launch and store drones, some of which had been used against Pakistan a day earlier, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar says.

The strikes on Thursday come as tensions escalate between the allies-turned-foes, who have increasingly been at odds over expanding insurgencies in Pakistan's west and northwest.

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring Islamist militants who stage cross-border attacks; Afghanistan's Taliban government denies this, saying militancy is Pakistan's internal problem.

Pakistan's air defence systems detected drones launched from Afghan territory on Wednesday, which were tracked and neutralised before they could reach any of their intended targets, Tarar said in a post on X.

Pakistan then conducted the "precision aerial and drone strikes" on 10 locations, which were "limited to identified military objectives" linked to the attempted attacks, he said.

"Any further provocative act by Afghan Taliban will be responded with firm and resolute response," the minister said.

Taliban officials denied that their government launched drones against Pakistan on Wednesday.

The Pakistani air strikes on Thursday hit several areas of the southeastern provinces of Khost and Paktia, but caused no casualties, two Taliban spokespersons told Reuters.

An attack on a police facility in northwestern Pakistan last week, which killed at least 24 people, has reignited fighting between the countries after nearly three months of relative calm.

Pakistan's government this week also said it had launched air strikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, killing 28 militants, while Afghan Taliban officials accused Islamabad of killing three civilians in overnight strikes on Afghan territory.

The worst single incident, however, occurred in March, when more than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani air strike on Kabul, which the Afghan Taliban said hit a drug rehabilitation centre.

Islamabad denied the charge, saying it "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".