Pakistani airstrikes claim civilian lives in AfghanistanAn overnight strike claimed the lives of at least 36 civilians and left more than 160 others, Afghan officials said on Monday. Pakistan, however, said its security forces targeted militant hideouts and safe havens along the Afghanistan border, killing 29 fighters in an operation launched in response to a series of militant attacks inside its territory, as cited by AP.Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan's Taliban government, said Pakistani forces struck a house in Chamkani district of Paktia province, killing an elderly man and a child and injuring several members of the family.He alleged that when residents gathered to rescue those trapped, the area was struck again, killing 28 villagers and injuring 158 others.Fitrat also said six people, mostly women and children, were killed after another house was hit in a village in Giyan district of Paktika province. In a separate strike, a civilian home in Kunar province was damaged, with no human casualties reported, though around 30 livestock were killed, he added.Afghanistan has condemned the strikes as an “act of brutality" and “cowardly act of aggression”. Hayatullah Mohajer Farahi, deputy minister for Publications at Afghanistan's Ministry of Information and Culture, said the country would respond “in due time.”Both the countries summoned each other's senior diplomats to lodge protests over the cross-border attacks.Zia Ahmad Takal, deputy spokesperson for Afghanistan's Foreign Ministry, accused Islamabad of repeatedly blaming Afghanistan for security incidents inside Pakistan without “credible evidence.”The Pakistani operation came after a militant attack on the regional headquarters of the paramilitary Rangers in Karachi that killed three soldiers. Security forces said they killed three attackers and arrested a fourth suspect, who was injured and identified by the military as an Afghan national.Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a breakaway faction of the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack.Pakistan has witnessed a surge in militant attacks targeting its police and security forces in recent years. Authorities have blamed the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), also known as the Pakistani Taliban, and its allied groups for most of the violence. While separate organisations, the TTP is allied with Afghanistan's Taliban, which returned to power in Kabul in 2021.The operation marked the latest flare-up in tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, coming less than three weeks after Islamabad targeted what it described as militant hideouts across the border. It shattered nearly a month of relative calm between the two countries despite ongoing international efforts to ease tensions.Hundreds of people have been killed in cross-border violence since February, when Afghanistan carried out retaliatory strikes following Pakistani airstrikes inside its territory.