The US State Department said on Thursday that Washington “supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself against terrorist attacks” as an intermittent conflict between Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan continues.
“The Pakistani people have suffered greatly at the hands of terrorists,” the State Department added.
Formerly allies, Afghanistan and Pakistan fought their worst battle in years in February.
The United Nations said on Monday that at least 28 civilians were killed and 49 injured in airstrikes carried out by Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s Taliban said later in the week they launched airstrikes into Pakistani territory, while Islamabad said its forces had intercepted and shot down four rudimentary drones in the southern resource-rich province of Balochistan.
Pakistan is nuclear-armed, and its military capabilities are vastly superior to Afghanistan’s.
However, the Afghan Taliban, who govern Afghanistan, are adept at guerrilla warfare, hardened by decades of fighting US-led forces, before returning to power in 2021 when Washington withdrew.
Pakistan is a major non-NATO ally of Washington, and ties between Washington and Islamabad have improved since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Pakistan has also been a mediator in attempts to resolve the US-Israeli war with Iran.
The US considers the Afghan Taliban to be a terrorist group, and Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of harboring terrorists that it blames for plotting attacks in Pakistan.
The Afghan Taliban deny the accusations, claiming that terrorism is Pakistan’s internal problem and that Pakistan is deflecting blame for its own security failures.
