Kabul – AFP
The death toll from the air strikes that Kabul blamed on the Pakistani army in the eastern Afghan provinces of Khost and Kunar has risen to 47, officials said Sunday.
“41 civilians, most of them women and children, were killed, and 22 were wounded, in air strikes carried out by Pakistani forces near the Durand Line in Khost province,” Shabir Ahmad Usmani, director of culture and information in Khost, said.
Two other officials confirmed the death toll from the bombing in Khost on Saturday, while an Afghan official said six people were killed in Kunar province.
Pakistan said that the incidents of targeting its security forces in cross-border attacks from Afghanistan rose significantly, and called on the authorities of the “Taliban” movement to act once morest the militants, a day following Pakistani air strikes on areas in Afghanistan.
On Saturday, the Taliban authorities summoned the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul; To protest the air strikes.
In a statement on Sunday, the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said: “In the past few days, incidents along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have increased significantly; The Pakistani security forces are being targeted across the border.”
She added that the perpetrators of the attacks “go with impunity”, and that Islamabad has repeatedly asked the Afghan authorities to take action to stop them, but to no avail.
It added that seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in the North Waziristan border region, on Thursday.
North Waziristan borders Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province, the alleged site of Friday’s strikes.
