Kabul blames Pakistan for airstrikes that killed 3 people in eastern Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Airstrikes that Afghanistan's Taliban government blamed on neighboring Pakistan struck two eastern provinces of the country, killing at least three people, wounding seven others and damaging homes, officials and witnesses said Thursday.

In Kabul, the foreign ministry decried the strikes that took place late Wednesday in Nangarhar and Khost provinces, calling them a “provocative act” by Pakistan and summoning the Pakistani ambassador in Kabul.

The Afghan Defense Ministry also condemned the strikes. “Such barbaric and brutal actions benefit neither sides; rather intensify the distance between the two Muslim nations and fuel hatred. These irresponsible activities will have consequences,” it wrote on the X social media platform.

Neither the Pakistani government nor the military commented on the alleged strikes.

Kabul previously has accused Pakistan of launching airstrikes in Afghanistan against suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant group banned in Pakistan and blamed for some of that country's deadliest terrorist attacks.

In Nangarhar's Shinwari district, members of a family whose house was reduced to rubble sifted through the debris to try to recover what they could.

“They dropped the first big bomb on my house. My house was completely destroyed,” said Shah Sawar, a resident of Nangarhar’s Shinwari district. “First I pulled a child out of the rubble, then I pulled four children and a woman out.”

Nangarhar’s deputy governor, Maulvi Azizullah Mustafa, said the strikes were fired by Pakistani drones. The Afghan foreign ministry said three people were killed and seven wounded in Nangarhar and Khost.

Kabul in December 2024 accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes against suspected hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban in Paktika province. Pakistan also did not acknowledge those strikes at the time. Kabul claimed hitting several points inside Pakistan in retaliation.

The latest violence comes a week after top diplomats from Pakistan, China and Afghanistan met in Kabul and pledged closer cooperation against terrorism. It also came three months after Pakistan and Afghanistan upgraded their diplomatic ties to improve bilateral relations.

However, relations between Islamabad and Kabul have remained tense since 2021, when the Afghan Taliban seized power, mainly over Kabul’s alleged support of the Pakistani Taliban, who have stepped up attacks on security forces and civilians in Pakistan in recent years.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, which is separate but closely allied to the Afghan Taliban. Kabul denies that, saying it does not allow anyone to use its soil against another country.

THIS CORRECTS THE CASUALTY FIGURES AS PROVIDED BY AFGHAN OFFICIALS - Residents inspect the site of a building destroyed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani deadly drone attack, in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

THIS CORRECTS THE CASUALTY FIGURES AS PROVIDED BY AFGHAN OFFICIALS - Relatives sit at the graves of children allegedly killed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani drone attack, in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

THIS CORRECTS THE CASUALTY FIGURES AS PROVIDED BY AFGHAN OFFICIALS - A building destroyed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani deadly drone attack is seen in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

THIS CORRECTS THE CASUALTY FIGURES AS PROVIDED BY AFGHAN OFFICIALS - Residents inspect the site of a building destroyed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani deadly drone attack, in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

Residents inspect the site of a building destroyed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani drone attack that killed eight civilians, including three children, in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

Relatives sit at the graves of three children allegedly killed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani drone attack that killed eight civilians in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

A building destroyed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani drone attack that killed eight civilians, including three children, is seen in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

Residents inspect the site of a building destroyed in what Taliban authorities said was a Pakistani drone attack that killed eight civilians, including three children, in Spera district of Khost province, Afghanistan, Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Saifullah Zahir)

CAIRO (AP) — Iranians began to regain internet access on Wednesday after authorities ended a monthslong shutdown. But users said service was slow and spotty in some areas, with apps like YouTube and Instagram heavily restricted, as they were before the cutoff began during nationwide protests in January.

Authorities justified the outage as a military imperative after the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28. Their decision to lift some restrictions this week came as negotiators appeared to be closing in on a more permanent truce. But many Iranians feared access could be cut off again at a moment's notice.

Internet tracking company Netblocks said Iran’s connectivity, which measures the ability of devices to connect to the internet, is at around 86% of capacity from before the cutoff. Internet analysis firm Kentik said internet traffic, which measures the amount of data transferred and is a good illustration of usage, was at around 40%.

Amir Rashidi, an Iranian cybersecurity analyst, said there were still widespread disruptions. “It's too early to say the shutdown is over,” he wrote on X.

Iran’s roughly 90 million people have been cut off from the internet for most of 2026, one of the world’s longest and strictest national shutdowns. Young people with online careers saw their incomes evaporate. Job losses and the closure of online businesses added to the war's steep economic costs.

The cutoff made it difficult for Iranian families to communicate through months of unrest and war. At some points, phone lines were also cut off, though they were later restored.

A woman living in Tehran said that for months she was barely able to speak to her sons living abroad. She couldn't believe authorities had restored access, saying she had assumed they would find some justification to prolong the outage.

A taxi driver said service was restored but weak. He expressed hope it would improve so he could use messaging apps with family and friends. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Prices spiked during the shutdown, with residents in Tehran at times paying around $7.50 per gigabyte. Prices are back down to around $2.25 for 30 gigabytes, roughly where they were before the protests.

Even then, Iran tightly controlled access to popular social media sites, leading many to rely on virtual private networks, or VPNs. The cost of those workarounds soared during the shutdown, making them unaffordable for many as the economy was battered.

Businesses have started reappearing online, announcing their return with posts on sites like Instagram and Telegram.

A gamer and tech influencer in the central city of Isfahan said the shutdown had caused him to lose a lot of his audience on YouTube and Instagram, where he had spent years building up a large following.

“All my views and interactions are way down. I’ve been erased from the algorithm,” he said in a voice note sent by WhatsApp, adding that his internet connection was still slower than before the shutdown.

“The situation is such that many content producers have had their income reduced to zero, have moved on to other jobs, or have been forced to sell their equipment to survive,” he said. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Iranian authorities first shut down the internet in January during mass anti-government protests that were eventually stamped out in a violent crackdown. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained.

That cutoff was just starting to ease when the government imposed a complete internet blackout after the start of the war, when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader and other top officials.

The government faced criticism for the prolonged shutdown, which caused even more harm to an economy devastated by inflation, strikes on key industries and a U.S. blockade on Iranian ports.

The internet cutoff cost an estimated $30-40 million daily, with indirect losses likely twice that much, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Afshin Kolahi, told a local newspaper last month. About 10 million people have jobs that depend on internet connectivity, according to Communications Minister Sattar Hashemi.

Iranians still had access to a national net, but that has a far narrower reach, and users complained of poor service and heavy censorship. Senior government officials are given SIM cards granting them access to the global internet. Under pressure, the government expanded access to the SIM cards to some professions during the shutdown.

A woman checks her smartphone while sitting on a bench along a sidewalk in northern Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)