Pakistan launches a new security operation against militants near Afghan border

KHAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani security forces have launched a “targeted operation” against militants in a restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, displacing tens of thousands of residents who fled to safer areas, officials said Tuesday.

There was no formal announcement of the launch of the offensive in Bajaur, a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, but a government administrator, Saeed Ullah, said it was not a large-scale operation and only insurgent hideouts were being hit to avoid civilian casualties.

Another government administrator, Shahhid Ali, said the number of displaced people had rapidly increased to nearly 100,000.

On Tuesday, the provincial government in the northwest said it will give 50,000 rupees ($175) in compensation to each displaced family in Bajaur, where volunteers from the Al-Khidmat Foundation, a charity, were also seen distributing food among displaced families.

Among those displaced is Gul Wali, 50, who said it was the second time that he had been forced to flee his home, as he sat in a government shelter, "although we have been told we will return to our village soon.”

Wali said most homes in his village in the Mamund district were destroyed during the previous military offensive in 2009. "We do not know what will happen to our homes this time,” he said.

Residents reported that security forces, backed by helicopters, struck militant hideouts in the mountainous areas along the Afghan border. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa police chief Zulfiqar Hameed said the operation was ongoing.

However, no information was available about any casualties among troops or insurgents.

The Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, are a separate group but a close ally of the Afghan Taliban, who seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, as U.S. and NATO troops were in the final stages of their pullout from the country after 20 years of war.

Many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and have been living there openly since the Taliban takeover, and some have crossed the border back into Bajaur and carried out attacks.

Pakistan also carried out a major operation in Bajaur against Pakistani and foreign militants in 2009, displacing hundreds of thousands of people. Pakistan claimed victory in 2010, when displaced people were allowed to return to homes.

Associated Press writers Rasool Dawar and Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Internally Displaced People, who fled from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, walk at a camp set up in a sports complex in Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

Volunteers offer water to Internally Displaced People, who flee from their homes due to security forces launched a targeted operation against militants, at a highway near Khar, the main town of Bajaur, a northwestern Pakistani district bordering Afghanistan, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan)

One U.S. service member was rescued and at least one was missing after two U.S. military planes went down in separate incidents including the first shoot-down since the war began nearly five weeks ago.

It was the first time U.S. aircraft have been downed in the conflict and came just two days after President Donald Trump said in a national address that the U.S. has “beaten and completely decimated Iran.”

One fighter jet was shot down in Iran, officials said. A U.S. crew member from that plane was rescued, but a second was missing, and a U.S. military search-and-rescue operation was underway.

Separately, Iranian state media said a U.S. A-10 attack aircraft crashed in the Persian Gulf after being struck by Iranian defense forces. A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive military situation, said it was not clear if the aircraft crashed or was shot down.

The war now entering its sixth week is destabilizing economies around the world as Iran responds to the U.S. and Israeli attacks by targeting the Gulf region's energy infrastructure and tightening its grip on oil and natural gas shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

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