Airstrikes by Pakistani warplanes inside Afghanistan have intensified tensions in recent days in an already volatile region. Once-close ties between Pakistan’s leaders and the Afghan Taliban have frayed, and violent cross-border exchanges have become alarmingly frequent.

       Officially, the Pakistani government has been tight-lipped about the strikes in Afghanistan on Dec. 24. But security officials privately said that the Pakistani military had targeted hide-outs of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant group also known as the T.T.P. or the Pakistani Taliban that has carried out a series of terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.

       The security officials said that several top militants from the Pakistani Taliban had died in the airstrikes, which came days after 16 Pakistani military personnel were ambushed and killed in a border district.

       The Taliban regime in Afghanistan said that dozens of civilians had died in the strikes, including Pakistani refugee families. The group condemned the strikes as a blatant violation of Afghan sovereignty, and said it had retaliated by conducting attacks on “several points” inside Pakistan.

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       Officials in Pakistan have not officially commented on those attacks. But they reported that they had thwarted a cross-border incursion by militants they said had been facilitated by the Taliban authorities.

       The airstrikes were the Pakistani military’s third major operation on Afghan soil since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, and the second in the past year alone.

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