Afghan Taliban hit 'several points' in Pakistan in retaliation for attacks | Taliban news

The attacks come days after the Taliban vowed revenge for Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan.

Afghan Taliban forces have attacked “several points” in neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan's defense ministry said, days after Pakistan's air force carried out air bombing inside the country.

The defense ministry's statement on Saturday did not directly specify that Pakistan had been struck, but said the attacks were carried out “across the 'hypothetical line'” – a term used by Afghan officials to refer to the border with Pakistan, which they have long disputed.

“Several points across the hypothetical line serving as hubs and hideouts for malicious elements and their supporters who organized and coordinated attacks in Afghanistan were attacked in retaliation from the southeastern direction of the country,” the ministry said.

Asked if the statement referred to Pakistan, ministry spokesman Enayatullah Howarazmi said: “We don't think it's Pakistani territory, so we can't confirm the territory, but it was on the other side of the hypothetical line.”

Afghanistan has for decades rejected the border, known as the Durand Line, drawn by British colonial authorities in the 19th century through the mountainous and often lawless tribal belt between what is now Afghanistan and Pakistan.

No details of casualties or specific target areas were provided. The Pakistan Army's public relations wing and a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, a security source told AFP on Saturday that at least one Pakistani paramilitary soldier had been killed and seven others wounded in a cross-border exchange of fire with Afghan forces.

Sporadic clashes, including with heavy weapons, erupted overnight between border forces on the border between Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Afghanistan's Khost province, officials from both sides said.

The incidents come after the Taliban in Afghanistan accused Pakistan of killing 46 people, mostly women and children, in airstrikes near the border this week.

Islamabad said it had attacked militant hideouts along the border, while Afghan officials warned on Wednesday that they would retaliate.

The neighbors have a strained relationship, with Pakistan claiming that several attacks on its territory were carried out from Afghan soil, a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.

The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) – which shares a common ideology with its Afghan counterparts – last week said it had stormed an army outpost near the Afghan border, killing 16 soldiers, according to Pakistan.

“We desire good relations with them (Afghanistan), but the TTP must be stopped from killing our innocent people,” Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a cabinet address on Friday.

“That's our red line.”