Amu findings: Pakistan attacked Afghanistan by air on 15 occasions in one year
Pakistan carried out air and drone attacks in Afghanistan on at least 15 occasions over nearly a year, targeting Kabul and several provinces and causing hundreds of civilian casualties, according to an Amu TV review of the attacks and UN casualty reports.
The review found that the attacks killed 364 civilians and wounded 346 others. The strikes, from October 2025 through September 2026, hit areas including Kabul and the provinces of Kandahar, Kunar, Khost, Nangarhar, Paktia and Paktika.
The attacks represent an unusually sustained period of Pakistani aerial operations inside Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021.
Despite the scale of the attacks and the civilian toll, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has not publicly named Pakistan or directly condemned the strikes, according to an Amu review of his public statements during the period. Other senior Taliban officials and spokesmen, however, have repeatedly said Pakistan has committed “aggression” and violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty.
The latest strikes came early Monday, Sept. 21, when Pakistani aircraft hit parts of Nurgal district in Kunar and Barmal district in Paktika in eastern Afghanistan, ending nearly three months of relative calm in publicly reported Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan.
The U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, confirmed that at least three civilians — a man, a woman and a girl — were killed and four others wounded in apparent airstrikes in Kunar. The victims belonged to one family. Taliban authorities reported no casualties from the strike in Paktika, where they said a house and a shop were hit.
Pakistan said its latest operation targeted militant camps and hideouts in the border region with Afghanistan. It said three targets, including what it described as a suicide bomber training center, were destroyed and claimed that 28 militants and multiple suicide bombers were killed.
Nearly a year of strikes
Amu’s review traces the latest cycle of Pakistani air attacks to October 2025, when tensions between Islamabad and the Taliban escalated into direct military confrontation.
According to casualty figures compiled by Amu from UNAMA reporting, attacks on Oct. 9 in Kabul and Paktika’s Barmal district killed four civilians and wounded 15. On Oct. 12, five civilians were killed and 35 wounded in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar.
Further attacks on Oct. 17 in the Urgun and Barmal districts of Paktika killed 18 civilians and wounded 12.
The violence resumed on Feb. 21 and 22, when Pakistani forces carried out airstrikes in Nangarhar and Paktika. UNAMA said at least 13 civilians were killed and seven wounded in strikes in Nangarhar, including women and children. In Paktika, strikes hit a madrassa, damaged a nearby mosque and struck a vacant residential house, with no civilian casualties reported there at the time.
Cross-border hostilities intensified in the following weeks. UNAMA documented 185 civilian casualties — 56 killed and 129 wounded — from aerial attacks and indirect fire between Feb. 26 and March 5. Women and children accounted for 55% of those casualties.
Amu’s review also identified attacks on March 13 in Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia and Paktika that killed four civilians and wounded 14.
Further attacks on Kabul on March 16 and 17 accounted for the largest number of casualties included in Amu’s compilation, with 269 civilians killed and 122 wounded.
Pakistani air attacks continued in the following months. Amu’s review found that an April 28 attack in Kunar killed seven civilians and wounded 78, while strikes on June 10 in Kunar, Khost and Paktika killed 13 civilians and wounded 10.
On June 28, Pakistani airstrikes hit Paktia, Paktika and Kunar. UNAMA confirmed at least 28 civilians were killed and 49 wounded, including women and children. Pakistan’s Information and Broadcasting Ministry confirmed that Pakistani security forces had carried out strikes in the three provinces.
UNAMA said at least 22 civilians were killed and 47 wounded in Chamkani district of Paktia. Six more civilians were killed in Gyan district of Paktika, while two children were wounded in Marawara district of Kunar. The UN mission said the figures were preliminary.
The Sept. 21 strikes in Kunar and Paktika were the first publicly reported Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan since late June.
UNAMA said Monday that cross-border armed violence has caused more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan so far this year. It did not provide a breakdown of deaths and injuries in that figure.
Akhundzada has not publicly named Pakistan
While Taliban spokesmen have repeatedly condemned Pakistan over the strikes, Amu’s review found no public statement from Akhundzada directly naming Pakistan or specifically condemning its airstrikes.
Days after one of the earlier deadly rounds of Pakistani attacks in March, Akhundzada made an indirect reference to the use of air power during an Eid al-Fitr speech.
“If we could have been defeated with artillery and aircraft, America and the Soviet Union would have done it,” Akhundzada said.
His remarks did not name Pakistan.
Taliban spokesmen, by contrast, have repeatedly used more explicit language.
Following the latest strikes, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistan of “aggression” and said Afghans would give an “appropriate response.” The Taliban Foreign Ministry also summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires to protest the strikes.
Hayatullah Muhajir Farahi, the Taliban’s deputy minister of information and culture, at an event in Kabul on Tuesday, Sept. 22, said they would not remain silent in the face of attacks on Afghanistan.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has proven over the past five years that, just as it fought and waged jihad against the American occupation, it will not remain silent, God willing, against anyone who commits aggression against our country,” Farahi said.
The Taliban chief minister, Mohammad Hassan Akhund, also had not publicly responded to the latest Pakistani strikes as of the publication of this report.
Relations deteriorate as civilians bear the cost
Relations between Islamabad and the Taliban have deteriorated sharply over Pakistan’s accusations that militant groups use Afghanistan’s territory to organize attacks across the border.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban of allowing the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and other armed groups to operate from Afghanistan. Taliban authorities have rejected the accusations.
Pakistan has said its military operations are directed at militant hideouts rather than civilians. In announcing the latest strikes, Islamabad said its forces had taken precautions to avoid civilian casualties. UNAMA, however, subsequently confirmed three civilian deaths and four injuries in Kunar.
The latest attacks followed a series of deadly militant attacks inside Pakistan. Islamabad has linked the growing violence to militants it says operate from sanctuaries across Afghanistan’s border, an allegation the Taliban dispute.
For Afghan civilians living in areas affected by the hostilities, the consequences have extended beyond the political dispute between the Taliban and Islamabad. Airstrikes, shelling and cross-border fighting have killed and wounded civilians, damaged homes and infrastructure and displaced families.
UNAMA has repeatedly called on all sides to respect international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution, and to take measures to protect civilians.