Taliban authorities warned Pakistan on Saturday after five children and a woman were killed in Afghanistan in alleged rocket attacks by the Pakistani forces in a pre-dawn assault along the border.
\u201cThe Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the bombardment and attack that has taken place from the Pakistan side on the soil of Afghanistan,\u201d government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters in an audio message.
\u201cThis is a cruelty and it is paving the way for enmity between Afghanistan and Pakistan \u2026 We are using all options to prevent repetitions (of such attacks) and calling for our sovereignty to be respected,\u201d he said.
\u201cThe Pakistani side should know that if a war starts it will not be in the interest of any side. It will cause instability in the region.\u201d
Pakistani military officials were not immediately available for comment.
Hundreds of civilians of Khost poured into the streets chanting anti-Pakistan slogans later on Saturday.
Border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan have risen since the Taliban seized power last year.
Islamabad claims militant groups are launching attacks on Pakistan from Afghan soil.
The Taliban deny harbouring Pakistani militants, and is infuriated by construction of a fence Pakistan is erecting along their 2,700-kilometre (1,600-mile) border, known as the Durand line.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said it was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by civilian deaths caused by air strikes, and the mission was verifying the extent of casualties.
Kunar provincial director of information Najibullah Hassan Abdaal told AFP: \u201cFive children and a woman were killed and a man wounded in Pakistani rocket attacks in Shelton district of Kunar.\u201d
Ehsanullah, a resident of Shelton district who goes by one name as many Afghans do, said the assault was carried out by Pakistani military aircraft. He confirmed the death toll.
According to another Afghan government official, a similar pre-dawn assault was carried out in Afghanistan\u2019s Khost province near the border.
\u201cPakistani helicopters bombarded four villages near the Durand line in Khost province,\u201d he said on condition of anonymity.
\u201cOnly civilian houses were targeted and there were casualties,\u201d he added, but did not offer more details.
TOLO News, Afghanistan\u2019s leading private TV channel, showed footage of houses destroyed in the assault in Khost.
\u201cAll the targeted people were innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the Taliban or the government,\u201d Rasool Jan, a resident of Khost, told the channel.
\u201cWe don\u2019t know who is our enemy and why we were targeted.\u201d
The Afghan foreign ministry said it had summoned the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul to protest the attacks.
\u201cSuch military violations including in Khost and Kunar should be prevented as ill-wishers and groups with vested interests will exploit these incidents,\u201d Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told the Pakistani envoy on Saturday, according to a ministry statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Border tensions Taliban authorities warned Pakistan on Saturday after five children and a woman were killed in Afghanistan in alleged rocket attack…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong>On Thursday, at least seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an ambush by an armed group near the Afghan border.
According to a military statement, a Pakistani military convoy in a former stronghold of the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, near the Afghan border was ambushed, triggering an intense shoot-out in which seven soldiers and four members of the armed group were killed.
The statement said the ambush took place in the Isham area of North Waziristan, a district in the volatile northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
\u201cPakistan Army is determined to eliminate the menace of terrorism and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,\u201d the statement added.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
The incident comes as Pakistan\u2019s military said on Thursday that 128 armed fighters have been killed in the region bordering Afghanistan since January.
The military acknowledged that nearly 100 soldiers have been killed in such attacks during the same period.
Paying tributes to the killed soldiers, Pakistan\u2019s new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said Islamabad would \u201ccontinue fighting terrorism\u201d.
North Waziristan \u2013 once dubbed the \u201cheartland of militancy\u201d \u2013 is one of the seven former semi-autonomous tribal regions in Pakistan where the army has conducted a series of operations since 2014 to eliminate the Pakistan Taliban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"