The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said Pakistani airstrikes in Kunar and Helmand killed at least 10 civilians, most of them children, and injured nine others.
“At least 10 civilians were killed, most of them children, and nine people injured,” UNAMA said, calling for de-escalation, dialogue and measures to prevent further civilian harm.
Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had earlier reported nine deaths and 11 injuries after strikes hit three homes in the two provinces. Deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat later put the civilian death toll at 10.
Bodies of people killed in Pakistani airstrikes in Helmand province on October 1, 2026. [AFP/Getty Images]
Islamabad, meanwhile, confirmed carrying out what it described as “well-planned and calibrated” strikes but did not disclose their locations.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said “terrorist camps and hideouts” at two locations in Afghanistan were targeted on the basis of “credible intelligence”. It claimed 22 militants were killed and that weapons and ammunition stored at the sites were destroyed.
Read More: Pakistani Airstrikes Hit Kunar, Helmand; Afghanistan Says Nine Women and Children Killed
In Helmand’s Safar village, two residents told AFP that three airstrikes hit the area. Abdul Wahid, 50, said four people were killed and seven injured.
Another resident, Qudrat Ullah, said he was inside his home when a neighbouring house was struck.
“The entire area has been destroyed,” he said, adding that residents were being kept away from the strike sites.
Residents survey damage following Pakistani airstrikes in Helmand province, Afghanistan, on October 1, 2026. [EPA-EFE/Stringer]
“There were civilians, children, women; they have killed them. There is no military or anything else,” he said.
In Kunar’s remote Chugam valley, an AFP journalist saw the remains of stone houses after the pre-dawn strike. Farmer Mohammad Hashim, 30, said he rushed to help residents and found a woman trapped beneath the rubble calling for help.
Hashim said rescuers later found a man and four children dead beneath the debris.
The Italian medical organisation Emergency said two children were admitted to its hospital in Lashkar Gah following the strikes.
UNAMA said the latest casualties came a week after another airstrike in Kunar on September 21, in which it confirmed that at least three civilians were killed and four others injured.
The mission said it has documented more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries in Afghanistan from cross-border armed violence so far this year.
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