At least three people were killed in Pakistani airstrikes on northeastern Afghanistan on Monday (September 21, 2026), Afghan officials said, threatening to reignite tensions between the neighbours after about three months of relative calm.
Relations between the former allies have remained strained since February, when the two sides fought their worst clashes in years. Islamabad denied the charge, saying it “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure. The airstrikes came days after a police facility in northwestern Pakistan was attacked, killing at least 16 people. The worst single incident occurred in March, when more than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani airstrike on Kabul, which the Taliban said targeted a drug rehabilitation centre. Pakistan has a large air force, with 422 combat aircraft and more than 260 helicopters, according to data from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). Afghanistan has no fighter jets but is known to possess at least 6 aircraft and 23 helicopters, and drones that have previously been used in fighting with Pakistan.
Afghanistan launched drones against Pakistan in July, which Islamabad said its forces had intercepted and shot down. Pakistan’s military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At least one house in Kunar province was hit in the strikes, killing three members of the same family and injuring four others, Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson of the Taliban government, said in a post on X. “In Barmal district of Paktika [province], two locations… were bombarded, destroying one shop and one unoccupied house, with no casualties reported,” he said.
The dispute centres on militancy in Pakistan, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of harbouring militants who stage cross-border attacks from Afghan territory.
Afghanistan’s Taliban government denies the charges and says militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.
