Pakistan Air Force Chengdu JF-17. By Wikimedia user (Shimin Gu)
Pakistan launched unprecedented strikes on the Afghan capital, Kabul, late on October 9, targeting two senior members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which is more commonly known as the Pakistani Taliban.
The strikes targeted the Abdul Haq Square area of Kabul, close to several ministries and the national intelligence agency.
A Pakistani security official and a member of the TTP told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that the strikes targeted Noor Wali Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban. The TTP source said the leader was alive but two “important” members of the group were killed, without disclosing their names.
Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said on October 10 that Pakistan was responsible for that attack and for another, in the eastern province of Paktika.
A market selling second-hand weapons, a shop selling computers, and a restaurant were hit in Paktika, according to Afghan media, which didn’t report any casualties there.
Asked at a news conference on the same day if Pakistan was behind the strikes on Afghanistan, Pakistani Army spokesman Ahmad Sharif did not give a direct answer.
“Afghanistan is being used as a base of operations against Pakistan, and there is proof and evidence of that,” Sharif said at the news conference in the northwestern city of Peshawar on October 10. “The necessary measures that should be taken to protect the lives and property of the people of Pakistan will be taken and will continue to be taken.”
Pakistan has, in the past, launched strikes inside Afghanistan to target what it says are militant hideouts and installations.
The latest strikes came two days after the TTP killed 11 Pakistani security personnel, including a lieutenant colonel and a major, in an attack in the northwestern Pakistani province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Despite sharing historic ties, Pakistan and the Taliban have fallen out since the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2020. Islamabad has repeatedly accused Kabul of backing the TTP. Attacks by the group in Pakistan are indeed increasing, and becoming more deadly.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence
NOW hosted at southfront.press
Previously, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.org.
The .org domain name had been blocked by the US (NATO) (https://southfront.press/southfront-org-blocked-by-u-s-controlled-global-internet-supervisor/) globally, outlawed and without any explanation
Back before that, from 2013 to 2015, SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence was at southfront.com
green on green terror? judging by the comments, no fu.ks given.