Pakistani Airstrikes Kill Nine Civilians in Kunar and Helmand, Afghanistan Says
Pakistani Airstrikes Kill Nine Civilians in Kunar and Helmand, Afghanistan Says
Pakistani military aircraft struck civilian homes in eastern and southern Afghanistan overnight, killing at least nine people — including women and children — and wounding 11, the Afghan government said on 1 October. Pakistan said its strikes hit militant hideouts and killed around 22 fighters, and denied causing any civilian casualties.
The strikes
According to Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban-led Afghan administration, the strikes hit the Chogam area of Shultan district in Kunar province, in the east, and the Safar area of Garmser district in Helmand, in the south, late on Wednesday, destroying three homes. He condemned the attack as an “act of aggression” and a violation of Afghan sovereignty. Kabul put the toll at nine dead and 11 wounded, among them women and children.
Pakistan’s account differs sharply. Its Ministry of Information said the operation targeted “camps and hideouts” used by armed groups and killed an estimated 22 fighters. Pakistani officials said there were no civilian casualties.
An escalating pattern
The strikes are the latest in an intensifying wave of cross-border attacks. Kabul says Pakistani strikes on 24 September killed four civilians in Kandahar, Paktia, and Khost, and that strikes three days earlier killed three people in Kunar and Paktika. In February 2026, Pakistani airstrikes on Nangarhar and Paktika killed at least 18 civilians by Afghan accounts — Pakistan said it had killed some 80 militants — and prompted an Afghan retaliatory operation along the border.
The dispute behind the strikes
The air campaign is rooted in a deepening quarrel between Islamabad and the Taliban government in Kabul. Pakistan accuses the Afghan administration of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), whose fighters it says cross the border to attack Pakistani forces; Kabul denies harbouring them and condemns the strikes as breaches of its sovereignty and of international law. The rival descriptions of almost every strike — militant hideouts hit, against civilian homes destroyed — rarely converge, and independent verification in the remote border districts is difficult.
The human cost of that gap is mounting. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has recorded more than 1,100 civilian casualties from cross-border violence inside Afghanistan so far this year.
As with the strikes before them, the attacks on Kunar and Helmand leave two irreconcilable tallies on the record — and, in the villages of Chogam and Safar, three destroyed homes and families burying their dead.
Pakistani military aircraft struck civilian homes in eastern and southern Afghanistan overnight, killing at least nine people — including women and children — and wounding 11, the Afghan government said on 1 October. Pakistan said its strikes hit militant hideouts and killed around 22 fighters, and denied causing any civilian casualties.
The strikes
According to Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for the Taliban-led Afghan administration, the strikes hit the Chogam area of Shultan district in Kunar province, in the east, and the Safar area of Garmser district in Helmand, in the south, late on Wednesday, destroying three homes. He condemned the attack as an “act of aggression” and a violation of Afghan sovereignty. Kabul put the toll at nine dead and 11 wounded, among them women and children.
Pakistan’s account differs sharply. Its Ministry of Information said the operation targeted “camps and hideouts” used by armed groups and killed an estimated 22 fighters. Pakistani officials said there were no civilian casualties.
An escalating pattern
The strikes are the latest in an intensifying wave of cross-border attacks. Kabul says Pakistani strikes on 24 September killed four civilians in Kandahar, Paktia, and Khost, and that strikes three days earlier killed three people in Kunar and Paktika. In February 2026, Pakistani airstrikes on Nangarhar and Paktika killed at least 18 civilians by Afghan accounts — Pakistan said it had killed some 80 militants — and prompted an Afghan retaliatory operation along the border.
The dispute behind the strikes
The air campaign is rooted in a deepening quarrel between Islamabad and the Taliban government in Kabul. Pakistan accuses the Afghan administration of sheltering the Pakistani Taliban (TTP), whose fighters it says cross the border to attack Pakistani forces; Kabul denies harbouring them and condemns the strikes as breaches of its sovereignty and of international law. The rival descriptions of almost every strike — militant hideouts hit, against civilian homes destroyed — rarely converge, and independent verification in the remote border districts is difficult.
The human cost of that gap is mounting. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan has recorded more than 1,100 civilian casualties from cross-border violence inside Afghanistan so far this year.
As with the strikes before them, the attacks on Kunar and Helmand leave two irreconcilable tallies on the record — and, in the villages of Chogam and Safar, three destroyed homes and families burying their dead.