Afghan forces respond to Pakistan’s airstrikes

KABUL, Dec. 28 (YPA) – Ministry of Defense of the Afghan interim government announced on Saturday that its forces targeted Pakistani territory in response to air strikes that Pakistani army carried out.

The ministry said in a statement that the sites, from which attacks on Afghanistan carried out, were targeted in Pakistani territory.

Afghanistan’s governments, including the current administration, had rejected the Durand Line, which officially demarcates the border between the two countries on the international stage, as the observation points established by the Afghan side on this line stand out as a major dispute between the two parties.

Media reports said that Afghan forces set fire to some Pakistani checkpoints in the Ali Sher area of Khost, and seized on two Pakistani checkpoints in the Dand Aw Patan district, after clashes that resulted in the killing of 19 Pakistani soldiers and three Afghan civilians.

On Tuesday, Pakistani warplanes bombed various areas in the Afghan border province of Paktika, which Islamabad said targeted sites of the Pakistani Taliban, while Kabul announced that the Pakistani raids resulted in the killing of 46 civilians.

AA