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

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

Officials say rare Pakistani airstrikes have targeted multiple suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban inside neighboring Afghanistan, dismantling a training facility and killing some insurgents.

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.

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

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.

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

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan reached a boiling point as Afghan forces carried out retaliatory strikes against Pakistan. This action came in response to deadly airstrikes conducted by Pakistan in Afghanistan’s eastern Paktika province,

Taliban forces crossed the Pakistani border and launched a major attack, killing at least 19 soldiers. The Pakistan Army claims to have killed 13 Taliban fighters in retaliation.