KABUL (Dispatches) -- Pakistani fighter jets struck suspected militant hideouts in eastern Afghanistan early Monday, with the two sides offering sharply conflicting accounts of casualties in an operation that threatens to reignite cross-border hostilities after nearly three months of relative calm.
Pakistan security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 28 suspected militants were killed in strikes targeting what they described as a suicide-bomber training center and other hideouts in Kunar and Paktika provinces. 
Afghanistan’s Taliban government said three civilians — all members of one family — were killed and four others wounded when a home was destroyed in Kunar’s Nurgal district around 3 a.m. local time.
“We condemn this aggression and oppression,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on X, warning of a response. “Pakistani military circles have once again committed such a crime to divert attention from their country’s security failures.” 
Afghan deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said additional strikes hit two locations in Paktika’s Barmal district, destroying a shop and an unoccupied house with no casualties reported. Pakistan’s military did not immediately issue a formal statement.
The strikes followed two deadly attacks on Pakistani security forces in recent days. On Friday, a suicide bomber and gunmen stormed a police compound in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, triggering a 20-hour battle that killed at least 21 people, most of them police officers. 
On Sunday, six Pakistani security personnel, including two army officers, were killed in a shootout in Hangu district.
Pakistan’s Information Ministry warned Saturday it could strike militants inside Afghanistan, blaming the Kohat attack on groups it says are based there and accusing Kabul of sheltering them. Afghanistan denies the allegations.
The escalation threatens to complicate mediation efforts by China, Qatar and Turkey, which have sought to reduce tensions between the neighbors. Relations have been tense since February, when the two sides engaged in their heaviest clashes in years.
The United Nations has previously documented civilian casualties from Pakistani operations inside Afghanistan. UN data recorded 57 Afghan civilians killed and 352 wounded between April and June 2026.
Analysts warn that a prolonged cycle of retaliatory strikes could destabilize the already fragile border region. Pakistan has repeatedly said its patience is running out over what it calls Kabul’s failure to act against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an umbrella militant group that has claimed responsibility for numerous attacks inside Pakistan in recent years.
There was no immediate indication of further military movements by either side as of Monday evening.