KABUL: The United Nations reported on Wednesday that at least 10 civilians, many of them children, were killed in Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan on October 1. The strikes struck the southern province of Helmand and the eastern district of Kunar, which shares a border with Pakistan, according to the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Nine others were wounded, reported by Hurriyet Daily News.
Pakistan confirmed it had carried out what it described as “planned and calibrated” attacks on two sites in Afghanistan. Islamabad said the operations targeted militant camps and hideouts based on fresh intelligence. Its Information Ministry claimed an initial assessment showed 22 militants killed and caches of weapons and ammunition destroyed, though these figures could not be independently verified.
Afghan authorities insisted civilians were among the dead. In Helmand, residents told AFP their homes had been hit. Abdul Wahid, a villager, said four people died and seven were injured in his community. In Kunar, an AFP correspondent saw stone houses scarred by the blasts.
The attacks deepen a rift between the two neighbors that has widened since heavy cross-border fighting earlier this year. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers of sheltering militants who launch attacks inside Pakistani territory. Kabul rejects the charge and has repeatedly denounced the strikes as violations of Afghan sovereignty.
UNAMA has urged both sides to spare civilians and abide by international humanitarian law as violence flares along the frontier.
