Taliban says it hit back at Pakistan after air strikes in Afghanistan kill 8

KABUL/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Afghanistan's Taliban said on Monday that Pakistan carried out two air strikes on its territory, killing five women and three children, and it fired heavy weapons at Pakistani forces along the border in retaliation.

The neighbouring countries have traded blame over who is responsible for a recent spate of Islamist militant attacks in Pakistan. Pakistan says the attacks were launched from Afghan soil; Afghanistan's ruling Taliban deny this.

"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan does not allow anyone to compromise security by using Afghan territory," Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban administration, said in a statement. The strikes killed five women and three children in the eastern border provinces of Khost and Paktika, he added.

In a statement, the Pakistani foreign office said Pakistan had carried out "intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations in the border regions inside Afghanistan".

It did not specify what kind of operations they were but said they targeted members the Hafiz Gulf Bahadur militant group after an attack on a military post in Pakistan on Saturday.

In a separate statement, the Taliban defence ministry said its security forces had targeted Pakistani troops at the border in response to the air strikes.

The Taliban foreign office said it had called in Pakistan's head of mission to condemn the attacks to him.

In a statement provided to state television, the Pakistani military said "a recent wave of terrorism has the full support and assistance of Afghanistan". It did not mention any air strikes, but said that Saturday's attack was carried out by militants who had "safe haven" in Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government and security officials have said repeatedly that such attacks have risen in recent months, many of them claimed by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and launched from Afghan soil.

"Over the past two years, Pakistan has repeatedly conveyed its serious concerns to the interim Afghan government over the presence of terror outfits," Pakistan's foreign office said.

The latest attack on Saturday took place when a vehicle laden with explosives and several suicide bombers detonated at a military post near the Afghan border, killing seven Pakistani security force members.

The Afghan Taliban has denied that it allows its territory to be used by militant groups.

"Pakistan shouldn't blame Afghanistan for the lack of control, incompetence and problems in its own territory," Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said in the statement.

"Such incidents can have very bad consequences which will not be in Pakistan's control."

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