Pakistani Taliban strike again: car bombing and border clashes
The Pakistani Taliban have once again launched deadly attacks along the border with Afghanistan, killing 23 people.
On Saturday, the group claimed responsibility for a series of assaults in several northwestern regions of Pakistan that left 20 security personnel and three civilians dead.
The attacks, including a suicide bombing targeting a police training academy, took place on Friday across various areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.
The frequency of attacks in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has increased since the withdrawal of US-led forces from neighboring Afghanistan in 2021 and the return of the Taliban to power in Kabul.
Suicide bombing and armed clashes
Eleven security officers were killed in the Khyber border area, while seven policemen died when a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the gate of the police training academy, followed by an armed assault.
Five other people, including three civilians, were killed in a separate clash in the Bajaur district, security officials told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.
The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), known as the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attacks in messages posted on social media. Although separate from the Afghan Taliban, the two groups maintain close ties.
The attacks came just hours after Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan of “violating Kabul’s sovereignty” following two explosions heard in the Afghan capital a day earlier.
Pakistan has not claimed responsibility for the blasts in Kabul but asserted its right to defend itself against insurgent movements operating along the border.
Islamabad has long accused Afghanistan of failing to expel militants who use Afghan territory as a base to launch attacks against Pakistan, an allegation repeatedly denied by Kabul.
The Pakistani Taliban and its affiliated groups are behind most of the violent incidents targeting security forces.
In total, 32 Pakistani soldiers and at least three civilians have been killed this week in border regions, including in Friday’s attacks.
