# Pakistan says it struck seven sites in Afghanistan after deadly attacks at home
*Event date: 2026-02-21*
Pakistan says it launched multiple air strikes on seven sites in neighboring Afghanistan, describing the operation as a response to recent suicide bombings and other attacks inside Pakistan. AFP, via The Straits Times, reported that the strikes were the most extensive since major border clashes in October 2025 and immediately drew an angry response from the Taliban authorities in Kabul.
Islamabad said the targets were camps used by the Pakistani Taliban, their associates and an affiliate of the Islamic State group. According to the report, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting presented the attacks as action against Afghanistan-based militant groups after repeated violence in Pakistan, including a suicide bombing at a Shi’ite mosque in Islamabad two weeks earlier that killed at least 40 people and wounded more than 160. Pakistan has long argued that Kabul has failed to stop such groups from using Afghan territory as a base.
Afghanistan’s version of events was sharply different. The Defence Ministry said the strikes hit a madrasah and homes in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces and killed or wounded dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children. An AFP journalist in Nangarhar’s Bihsud district saw residents using shovels and machinery to search for bodies under rubble, while local police said entire families had been trapped when the bombardment began around midnight. That on-the-ground detail makes clear that whatever Pakistan intended to hit, the consequences reported in Afghanistan were severe and immediate.
The episode shows how badly relations have deteriorated since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. The two governments have sparred for months over border security, militant sanctuaries and retaliation. The report says previous Pakistani military action killed 70 Afghan civilians between October and December, according to the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, while several negotiation rounds and a ceasefire effort backed by Qatar and Turkey failed to produce a durable settlement. Saudi Arabia had also recently mediated the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan.
The evidence packet does not independently verify Pakistan’s militant-targeting claims or provide a full casualty count from the Afghan side. It also does not show whether the promised Afghan response had begun. Even so, the central facts are clear and significant: Pakistan carried out a coordinated cross-border strike on seven sites, Afghanistan said civilians were among the dead and wounded, and the already bitter dispute between the neighbors moved another step toward a wider confrontation.
