---
title: "Pakistan Says Retaliatory Strikes in Afghanistan Killed Dozens of Militants"
description: "Pakistan's military said it carried out strikes against militant hideouts inside Afghanistan, killing about 25 fighters, a day after a vehicle bombing at a paramilitary base in Karachi — the latest exchange in a cross-border conflict whose casualty figures both governments dispute."
category: "World"
category_url: https://herald.la/category/world
author: "Valeria Ortiz"
published: 2026-06-29T02:38:34.000Z
updated: 2026-06-29T02:38:34.000Z
canonical: https://herald.la/article/pakistan-says-retaliatory-strikes-in-afghanistan-killed-dozens-of-militants
tags: ["Pakistan", "Afghanistan", "TTP", "airstrikes", "Karachi", "South Asia"]
---
# Pakistan Says Retaliatory Strikes in Afghanistan Killed Dozens of Militants

Pakistan's military said it carried out strikes against militant hideouts inside Afghanistan, killing about 25 fighters, a day after a vehicle bombing at a paramilitary base in Karachi — the latest exchange in a cross-border conflict whose casualty figures both governments dispute.

Pakistan's military said it struck militant hideouts inside Afghanistan, killing about 25 fighters, in retaliation for a deadly attack on a paramilitary base in Karachi — an account that Afghanistan's Taliban government had not addressed and that could not be independently verified.

## The trigger in Karachi

The strikes followed an assault on Saturday in which a militant rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the provincial headquarters of Pakistan's Rangers paramilitary force in Karachi, killing three soldiers and wounding others, [the Associated Press reported](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jun/28/pakistans-military-says-3-soldiers-killed-militant-attack-karachi/). Security forces killed several of the attackers and detained at least one. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Pakistani officials vowed swift retaliation, and by Sunday the military said it had hit what it described as hideouts and "safe havens" used by the Pakistani Taliban, known by the initials TTP, across the Afghan border.

## A disputed toll

Pakistan put the number of militants killed at around 25, [France 24 reported](https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260629-pakistan-says-retaliatory-airstrikes-in-afghanistan-killed-25-militants); some accounts citing Pakistani officials put the figure at 29, [according to PBS NewsHour](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/pakistan-says-it-carried-out-ground-operation-strikes-along-afghan-border-killing-29-militants). Neither figure has been independently confirmed, and the identities and affiliations of those killed could not be verified by outside observers.

The pattern is a familiar one in this conflict. In earlier rounds of Pakistani strikes this year, Islamabad reported killing militants while the Afghan Taliban government countered that the dead were civilians, including women and children. Pakistan has dismissed those accounts as propaganda. Independent verification on the ground is rare, and the competing tallies are difficult to reconcile.

## A widening cross-border war

Islamabad accuses the TTP of using Afghan territory as a staging ground for attacks inside Pakistan — a charge the Taliban administration in Kabul denies, insisting it does not allow its soil to be used against neighbors. Pakistan does not recognize any limit on its right to strike what it calls terrorist sanctuaries; Afghanistan condemns the strikes as violations of its sovereignty.

The result has been a steadily escalating cycle of attack and retaliation that has strained relations between the two governments to near-breaking and, by United Nations accounts cited earlier this year, taken a heavy toll on Afghan civilians caught near the frontier. With each side blaming the other and little diplomacy underway, analysts warn the violence could deepen further along one of the region's most volatile borders.

## Sources

- [Pakistan says retaliatory airstrikes in Afghanistan killed 25 militants](https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20260629-pakistan-says-retaliatory-airstrikes-in-afghanistan-killed-25-militants)
- [Pakistan's military says 3 soldiers were killed in a militant attack in Karachi and vows retaliation](https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jun/28/pakistans-military-says-3-soldiers-killed-militant-attack-karachi/)
- [Pakistan says it carried out strikes along Afghan border, killing militants](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/pakistan-says-it-carried-out-ground-operation-strikes-along-afghan-border-killing-29-militants)