Afghan and Pakistani delegations were in Doha yesterday for talks on defusing the deadliest crisis between them in several years, after more than a week of fighting killed dozens of people and injured hundreds on both sides.
Both governments sent their ministers of defense to lead the talks, which Pakistan said would focus on “immediate measures to end cross-border terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and restore peace and stability along the border.”
Each country said it is responding to aggression from the other.
Photo: AP
Afghanistan denies harboring militants who carry out attacks in border areas.
Regional powers, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have called for calm, as the violence threatened to further destabilize a region where groups including the Islamic State and al-Qaeda are trying to resurface.
A 48-hour ceasefire intended to pause hostilities expired on Friday evening. Hours later, Pakistan struck across the border.
Pakistani security officials confirmed that there were strikes on two districts in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika Province.
The targets were hideouts of the militant Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, officials said, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The operation was a direct response to the suicide bombing of a security forces compound in Mir Ali, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, a day earlier, one said.
The Pakistani Air Force raids killed dozens of armed fighters and there were no civilian deaths, they added.
However, Afghan officials said the aerial assaults killed at least 10 civilians, including women, children and local cricketers.
On Saturday, several thousand people attended funeral prayers in Paktika. They sat in the open air as loudspeakers broadcast sermons and condemnations.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement criticized the “repeated crimes of Pakistani forces and the violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.”
Such acts were deemed provocative and viewed as “deliberate attempts” to prolong the conflict, he added.
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