Pakistan said Sunday it launched multiple air strikes targeting militants in neighboring Afghanistan, where the government reported children were among dozens of people killed and wounded.
The overnight attacks were the most extensive since border clashes in October killed more than 70 people on both sides and wounded hundreds.
Islamabad said it hit seven sites along the border region targeting Afghanistan-based militant groups "in the aftermath of recent suicide bombing incidents in Pakistan".
The military targeted the Pakistani Taliban and its associates, as well as an affiliate of ISIS, a statement by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said.
Afghanistan's defense ministry said "dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children, were martyred and wounded" when strikes hit a madrasa and homes in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces.
An AFP journalist in Nangarhar's Bihsud district said residents from around the remote and mountainous area joined rescuers in one village, using a digger and shovels to search for bodies under the rubble.
Afghanistan's defense ministry said it will "deliver an appropriate and calculated response" to the Pakistani strikes.
The two countries have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute since the Taliban authorities retook control of Afghanistan in 2021.
Pakistani military action killed 70 Afghan civilians between October and December, according to the UN mission in Afghanistan.
