Afghan Taliban forces targeted “several points” in neighboring Pakistan, Afghanistan’s defense ministry said on Saturday, days after Pakistani aircraft carried out aerial bombardment inside Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that its forces hit several points inside Pakistan in retaliation for deadly airstrikes last week. Pakistan last Tuesday launched an operation to destroy a training facility and kill insurgents in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province. The strikes killed dozens of people, mostly women and children.

The first cross-border strike inside Afghanistan since March came after a spate of attacks by the Pakistan Taliban.

On Wednesday, the Pakistani military said security forces killed 13 insurgents in an overnight operation in an intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan.

While the Pakistan side kept mum on the bombing allegations, the sources claimed that three key targets of the airstrikes were Munib Jatt, head of the TTP media cell, Umar Media, his deputy Abu Hamza, and Akhtar Muhammad Khalil, a commander of his own faction.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan’s airstrikes on eastern Afghanistan killed 46 people, mostly women and children, a Taliban government official said Wednesday, raising fears of further straining the relations between the two neighbors.

It is the first public admission by a senior Taliban leader regarding the presence of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan operatives in the country

At least 19 Pakistani soldiers and three Afghan civilians died after heavy clashes erupted between security forces of the two neighbouring nations at the border crossing points, media reports said on Saturday.

Taliban forces struck“ several points” in Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistani attacks on Afghanistan. Afghanistan's Taliban government said on Saturday that it struck "several points" inside neighboring Pakistan.