Afghanistan says Pakistan bombed Khost, killing nine children and a woman

At least nine children and a woman have been killed after Pakistani forces bombed a house in the country’s southeastern Khost province, according to Afghan authorities.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman for the Taliban administration, said on Tuesday that the attack took place at midnight (19:30 GMT) in the Gurbuz district of Khost province.
The latest attack risks triggering renewed hostilities and comes as a fragile ceasefire between the two nations hangs by a thread, with each side blaming the other for the impasse in the negotiations.

“The Pakistani invading forces bombed the house of a local civilian resident, Waliat Khan, son of Qazi Mir,” Mujahid wrote in a post on X.

“As a result, nine children [five boys and four girls] and one woman were martyred, and his house was destroyed,” he added.

Other air strikes took place in northeastern Kunar and eastern Paktika provinces, Mujahid said, wounding at least four civilians.

There was no immediate comment from Pakistan.
The bombardment in Afghanistan comes a day after a suicide attack that targeted the headquarters of Pakistan’s paramilitary Federal Constabulary force in Peshawar.

The Jamaat-ul-Ahrar – which is a splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP – claimed responsibility for that attack.

State broadcaster PTV reported the attackers were Afghan nationals, and President Asif Zardari blamed the “foreign-backed Fitna al-Khawarij” – Islamabad’s term for the TTP fighters it accuses of operating from Afghan soil.