Pakistan claims it has killed 133 Taliban members in cross-border strikes

Pakistan claimed early Friday that its forces had killed at least 133 Taliban members in cross-border strikes inside Afghanistan, as it responded to Taliban border attacks.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan prime minister on foreign media, said in an update issued at 3:45 a.m. that Pakistani counterstrikes against what he described as Taliban military targets in Afghanistan were continuing.

“A total of 133 Afghan Taliban are confirmed killed, more than 200 wounded,” Zaidi said, adding that additional casualties were estimated in strikes on targets in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar.

He said 27 Taliban posts had been destroyed and nine captured. The strikes, he added, had also destroyed two corps headquarters, three brigade headquarters, two ammunition depots, one logistics base, three battalion headquarters, two sector headquarters and more than 80 tanks, artillery pieces and armored personnel carriers.

Pakistan described the operations as an “immediate and effective response to aggression.”