Allies-turned-foes: Pakistan retaliates with air strikes a day after Afghanistan drone attack

Pakistan conducted airstrikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan that it said were being used to launch and store drones, some of which had been used against Pakistan a day earlier, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Thursday.

The strikes come as tensions escalate between the allies-turned-foes, who have long been at odds over attacks by Islamist militants, which also triggered their worst fighting in years in February.

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring militants who stage cross-border attacks, but Afghanistan's Taliban government denies harbouring anti-Pakistani insurgents and says militancy is Pakistan's internal problem.

Pakistan's air defence systems detected drones launched from Afghan territory on Wednesday, which were tracked and neutralised before they could reach any of their intended targets, Tarar said in a post on X.

Pakistan then conducted the "precision aerial and drone strikes" on 10 locations, which were "limited to identified military objectives" linked to the attempted attacks, he said.

"Any further provocative act by Afghan Taliban will be responded with firm and resolute response," the minister said.

The Pakistani airstrikes were conducted in several areas of the southeastern Khost province, Mustaghfir Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Khost governor, said.

There were no casualties, he said.

An attack on a police facility in northwestern Pakistan last week, which killed at least 24 people, has reignited fighting between the countries after nearly three months of relative calm.

Pakistan's government earlier this week also said it had launched airstrikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region, killing 28 militants, while Afghan Taliban officials accused Islamabad of killing three civilians in overnight strikes on Afghan territory.

The worst single incident, however, occurred in March, when more than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani airstrike on Kabul, which the Afghan Taliban said hit a drug rehabilitation centre.

Islamabad denied the charge, saying it "precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure".

-Reporting by Carlos Méndez in Mexico City and Sayed Hassib in Kabul; Writing by Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Lincoln Feast/Reuters