#cross-border-strikes

#cross-border-strikes

Pakistan said it carried out cross-border strikes on seven militant sites inside Afghanistan in a "retributive response" to recent suicide attacks claimed by Afghan-backed extremists, as tensions escalated between the two South Asian neighbors. Pakistan "has carried out intelligence-based selective targeting of seven terrorist camps and hideouts," the Information Ministry said early on February 22. Islamabad said it had "conclusive evidence" that recent attacks inside Pakistan were carried out by Afghan-based Pakistani Taliban extremists who were allegedly acting on instructions from "their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers."

Ukraine's top military commander, Oleksandr Syrskii, said the army's situation has significantly worsened in parts of the southeastern Zaporizhia region amid fierce fighting with Russian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on X that he had received an update from Syrskii, which conveyed that the situation remains difficult in the Zaporizhia region, as well as in the direction of the embattled city of Pokrovsk. Zaporizhia Governor Ivan Fedorov said that a Russian drone attack killed a 56-year-old man in the Polohivskyi district. Also in Zaporizhia, the Kushuhum Village Council announced in a post on the Telegram messaging app that families with children must begin mandatory evacuations from the area.