KABUL: The Pakistani military launched rare deadly strikes on Afghanistan’s Helmand province on Thursday (Oct 1), the Taliban government and residents told AFP.
Afghanistan and Pakistan went to war earlier this year and, with no permanent resolution to security issues reached, there have been sporadic attacks since a March truce.
The latest strikes hit Helmand as well as Kunar, which borders Pakistan, killing 10 civilians, according to the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat.
Islamabad confirmed “planned and calibrated” strikes in Afghanistan, without detailing locations, which it said targeted militants.
Two Helmand residents told AFP that three airstrikes hit their village.
Pakistan’s information ministry said two locations in Afghanistan were hit “based on credible intelligence, selective targeting of terrorist camps and hideouts”.
Alongside neighbouring Kandahar province, which was hit by an airstrike last week, Helmand in southern Afghanistan holds great importance for the Taliban movement.
Speaking by phone from Helmand’s Safar village, 50-year-old resident Abdul Wahid said the strikes killed four people and wounded seven.
Another villager, Qudrat Ullah, said he was home when his neighbours’ house was hit.
“The whole area is destroyed,” the 32-year-old said, adding that residents were being kept away from the strike sites.
“There were civilians, children, women; they have killed them. There is no military or anything else,” he told AFP by phone.
Pakistan’s information ministry reported an initial toll of 22 militants killed, and weapons and ammunition destroyed.