The armed forces of Pakistan has launched overnight air attacks inside Afghanistan, fueling the ongoing tensions between the two countries.
Pakistani military sources claimed to have targeted cave hideouts of Pakistani Taliban, who are conducting terror operations within Pakistan. Reportedly, the attacks came in response to a suicide attack by the Pakistani Taliban in Pakistan's North Waziristan on Saturday, as reported by Al Jazeera.
Afghanistan is ruled by the Taliban, who responded sharply to the Pakistani attacks, who they claimed to have hit civilians in Paktika and Khost provinces with at least eight casualties. Afghanistan strongly condems the Pakistani attack and the Taliban responded with attacks on Pakistani border postings.
Pakistan has accused Afghanistan and the Taliban of fueling insurgencies in the Khyber Pakhunkhwa and Balochistan provinces, where up to 1,000 people died in attacks last year. The Pakistani Taliban is viewed as the source of many of these attacks, and the Pakistani government has waged an increasingly intensive campaign against the group inside Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Analysts hope that the current exchange of attacks may end in a "tit-for-tat" situation, where both sides are satisfied and tensions can cool down. This was the situation in January, where Pakistan exchanged missile attacks with Iran over a short period of time.
However, the Pakistani-Afghan feud has gone on for years ever since the Taliban took back power in Afghanistan from the US-led coalition.