Taliban Launches Aerial Strikes Against ISIS Positions in Pakistan Amid Rising Tensions

The Taliban’s Ministry of Defense has officially announced the execution of night aerial strikes targeting ISIS positions and destructive centers in Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces; meanwhile, the Pakistani military claims to have shot down four drones from Kabul…

Airstrikes on ISIS and Armed Groups Deep Inside Pakistan

The Taliban’s Ministry of Defense has issued a formal statement announcing successful airstrikes against several military targets in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan provinces. The statement explicitly claims that these targets belonged to the group known as the Islamic State (ISIS) and centers coordinating destructive activities. According to the Ministry, these strikes were coordinated and executed on Tuesday night against a joint center in the Saranan area of Pishin district in Balochistan; these centers were reportedly used to organize terrorist attacks against civilians in Afghanistan.

Continuing Tensions After Heavy Civilian Casualties in Eastern Provinces

Although the statement does not directly refer to the recent deadly airstrikes by the Pakistani military in Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar, this military action follows airstrikes in which dozens of Afghan civilians lost their lives. The Taliban government previously reported the death toll from those attacks to be thirty-six, with an additional one hundred sixty-three individuals injured; a figure that has been largely corroborated by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

Expansion of Airstrikes to Chitral and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

In another part of the report, the Defense Ministry of the Islamic Emirate mentioned that the Kabul Air Force simultaneously conducted precise strikes on another ISIS center in the Qambar Khail area and a joint base in the Warm Chashma region of the Shah Salim Valley in Chitral. Kabul’s military officials emphasize that initial intelligence indicates heavy casualties and substantial financial losses inflicted on the terrorists and their supporters during these operations, and due to high accuracy in targeting, no harm or casualties occurred to the local civilian population.

Pakistan’s Claim of Shooting Down Four Drones

Meanwhile, Reuters reported, citing security officials in Islamabad, that Pakistan’s defense forces identified and shot down four drones, which they described as primitive, in the airspace over Balochistan. The Pakistani army issued a statement claiming that these drones were destroyed immediately upon entering the country’s airspace. Local officials in Balochistan confirmed the occurrence of a drone strike, noting that one of the drones fell near a government school in the Saranan area, resulting in two injuries. These developments come amid a report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, assessing that although the Taliban’s air forces lack advanced fighter jets, they do possess several helicopters and a number of combat drones for use in border conflicts.