Pakistan strikes ten Afghan sites following cross-border drone incursions

Retaliatory strikes across Afghan provinces

Pakistan conducted precision air and drone strikes against 10 locations inside Afghanistan on the morning of Thursday, 24 September 2026. Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar stated that the operation exercised the country's sovereign right to self-defence, aiming at facilities used for launching and storing unmanned aircraft. Afghan government officials in Kabul did not immediately issue a formal response, but local provincial spokespersons confirmed strikes across eastern Afghanistan. In Paktia province, Pakistani fighter jets bombed the 203rd Mansouri Corps of the Afghan army, according to provincial spokesperson Mohammad Rasool Ahmadi. In southeastern Khost province, provincial spokesperson Mustaghfir Gurbaz confirmed strikes across several areas and reported that no casualties had been recorded. In Kandahar, the southern city where Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada resides, local witnesses reported hearing jet aircraft followed by a blast and fire in the city centre.

Drone incursions triggering the operation

The strikes followed an aerial incident across the border on Wednesday, 23 September 2026. Pakistan reported that drones launched from Afghan territory violated its airspace. The Pakistani Information Ministry stated that 23 drones attempted an incursion, while defense reports also cited the interception of eight armed drones alongside artillery fire aimed at a Pakistani border post. Pakistan air defence systems tracked and neutralised the drones before they reached their intended targets. Tarar stated that the retaliatory strikes were calibrated, deliberate, and strictly confined to military infrastructure linked to the attempted incursions.

Tarar published a warning to the Taliban administration following the operation.

Any further provocative act by Afghan Taliban will be responded with firm and resolute response.

A week of escalating border casualties

The Thursday operation was the second wave of Pakistani airstrikes conducted that week. On Monday, 21 September 2026, Pakistani aircraft carried out strikes in eastern Kunar province and along the border corridor. The Pakistani government said the Monday strikes killed 28 militants, whereas Afghan officials and United Nations representatives reported that three civilians died in the overnight bombing. The renewed military friction ended nearly three months of relative calm that followed spring clashes. That pause broke on Friday, 18 September 2026, when an assault on a police headquarters in northwestern Pakistan killed between 24 and 31 people, an attack claimed by a faction linked to Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Long-running security disputes

Tensions between Islamabad and Kabul have persisted since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021. Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Afghan Taliban of providing sanctuary to TTP fighters who launch cross-border attacks, a charge Kabul denies, calling militancy an internal Pakistani problem. Heavy border clashes in October 2025 caused dozens of casualties and resulted in the near-total closure of the land border. Mediated discussions temporarily reduced hostilities, but fighting expanded into open conflict in late February 2026 with airstrikes across Kabul and Kandahar. On 16 March 2026, a Pakistani airstrike on a drug rehabilitation centre in Kabul killed at least 269 civilians according to United Nations figures, while Taliban officials placed the death toll above 400. Islamabad maintained that the March strike targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure.