Afghan and Pakistani delegations are heading to the Qatari capital Doha to defuse the deadliest crisis between them in several years, after more than a week of fighting killed dozens of people and injured hundreds on both sides.
The Taliban government said Saturday that the Afghan delegation included the defense minister and the head of the national intelligence agency. A Pakistani delegation was going on Saturday, the national broadcaster PTV said a day earlier. It did not give further details.
Each country says it is responding to aggression from the other. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring militants who carry out attacks in border areas, a charge rejected by the country’s Taliban government.
A 48-hour ceasefire intended to pause hostilities expired Friday evening. Hours later, Pakistan struck across the border.
Pakistani security officials confirmed to The Associated Press that there were strikes on districts in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province — Urgun and Barmal.
The targets were hideouts of the militant Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. They did not mention casualties.
One official said the operation was a direct response to the suicide bombing of a security forces compound in Mir Ali, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province a day earlier.
Afghan officials said the aerial assaults killed at least 10 people, including women and children. The attacks prompted the national cricket board to boycott an upcoming series in Pakistan.
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Associated Press writers Abdul Qahar Afghan in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, and Sajjad Tarakzai in Islamabad contributed to this report.
