Afghanistan authorities say some 60 civilians, including five children, were killed as Pakistan launched air-strikes across the border on Khost and Kunar provinces April 15 and 16. The strikes, carried out by both missiles and warplanes, follow a series of attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Pakistan’s borderlands, including an April 14 ambush on a military convoy in North Waziristan district in the volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The strikes were harshly condemned both by the Taliban regime, officially the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” and the Afghan permanent mission in the United Nations. However, more than six months after the Taliban takeover, the status of the UN mission is still contested—it is staffed by holdovers from previous regime, but it is unclear whether that government or the new Taliban regime formally holds the UN seat.
The tensions over the air-strikes come a week after top diplomats from China, Pakistan, Turkmenistan and other regional states met for a summit at Tunxi, in China’s Anhui province, on reviving the long-stalled Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline, which would deliver Central Asian gas to world markets through Afghan territory. (Al Jazeera, ANI, Khaama Press, Khaama Press, Khaama Press, Khaama Press, Hindustan Times, The Diplomat)
Photo via Khaama Press
