PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix Suns confirmed that forward Dillon Brooks fractured his left hand Saturday night in a 113-110 double-overtime win over the Orlando Magic.
The 30-year-old Brooks played just seven minutes against the Magic, grabbing at his non-shooting hand before exiting the game and heading back to the locker room. Brooks is in the midst of his best NBA season, averaging a career-high 20.9 points and 3.7 rebounds, all while providing his usual hard-nosed personality.
Coach Jordan Ott said Sunday that Brooks was still undergoing tests on the injury and wasn't sure when he might return to the floor.
“The identity doesn’t change," Ott said. “Play the same style. Our defense is gonna have to be better, offense is gonna have to be better. ... We’re just gonna have to find new ways as things continue to progress.”
The Suns have been one of the NBA's surprise teams this season with a 33-24 record, but injuries have started to pile up since the All-Star break.
Star guard Devin Booker is out for at least one week with a strained right hip while guards Grayson Allen (ankle/knee) and Jordan Goodwin (calf) are were out Sunday night against Portland.
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Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks (3) drives on Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks shields the ball from Dallas Mavericks forward Naji Marshall (13) during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Pakistan’s military killed at least 70 militants in strikes along the border with Afghanistan early Sunday, targeting what it described as hideouts of Pakistani militants it blamed for recent attacks inside the country, the deputy interior minister said. Kabul rejected the claim.
Talal Chaudhry, Pakistan’s deputy interior minister, offered no evidence for his claim in an interview with Geo News that at least 70 militants were killed in the strikes. Pakistan’s state-run media later reported that militant fatalities jumped to 80.
The Afghan Defense Ministry said in a statement that “various civilian areas” in the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktika in eastern Afghanistan were hit, including a religious madrassa and multiple homes. The statement called the strikes a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.
Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on X the attacks “killed and wounded dozens, including women and children.” He said Pakistan’s claim of killing 70 militants was “inaccurate.”
Mawlawi Fazl Rahman Fayyaz, the provincial director of the Afghan Red Crescent Society in Nangarhar province, said 18 people were killed and several others wounded.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said late Sunday Islamabad’s recent strikes along the Afghan border were “rooted in (Pakistan’s) inherent right to defend its people against terrorism," after repeated warnings to Kabul went unheeded.
Earlier this month, Zardari warned that the Taliban-led government has created conditions “similar to or worse than” those before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In a statement, he said Pakistan had “exercised restraint” by striking only border hideouts but warned that those responsible for attacks inside Pakistan “will not remain beyond reach,” stressing that protecting Pakistani citizens is “paramount and non-negotiable.”
Afghanistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Pakistan’s ambassador to Kabul to protest the Pakistani strikes. In a statement, the ministry said protecting Afghanistan’s territory is the Islamic Emirate’s “Sharia responsibility” and warned that Pakistan would be responsible for the consequences of such attacks.
On Sunday, villagers cleared rubble in Nangarhar following airstrikes, while mourners prepared for funerals of those killed. Habib Ullah, a local tribal elder, said those killed in the strikes were not militants. “They were poor people who suffered greatly. Those killed were neither (the) Taliban, nor military personnel, nor members of the former government. They lived simple village lives,” he told The Associated Press.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that the military conducted “intelligence-based, selective operations” against seven camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and its affiliates. He said an affiliate of the Islamic State group was also targeted.
Tarar said Pakistan “has always strived to maintain peace and stability in the region,” but added that the safety and security of Pakistani citizens remained a top priority.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of it blamed on the TTP and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.
Hours before the Pakistani strikes, a suicide bomber targeted a security convoy in the border district of Bannu in Pakistan’s northwest, killing two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel. Pakistan’s military warned after the attack that it would not “exercise any restraint” and that operations against those responsible would press on.
Another suicide bomber, backed by gunmen, rammed an explosives-laden vehicle last week into the wall of a security post in Bajaur district in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Pakistani authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.
Tarar said Pakistan had “conclusive evidence” that the recent attacks, including a suicide bombing that targeted a Shiite mosque in Islamabad and killed 31 worshippers earlier this month, were carried out by militants acting on the “behest of their Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers.”
He said Pakistan had repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to take verifiable steps to prevent militant groups from using Afghan territory to launch attacks in Pakistan, but alleged that no substantive action had been taken. Tarar also asked the international community to press Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to uphold their commitments under the Doha agreement not to allow their soil to be used against other countries.
In Islamabad, security analyst Abdullah Khan said the Pakistani strikes suggest that Qatari, Turkish and even Saudi-led mediations have failed to resolve tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan. “These strikes are likely to further escalate the situation,” he said.
The Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the two countries came about after deadly border clashes in October, killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.
The truce between Islamabad and Kabul has largely held, but several rounds of talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement, and relations remain strained.
Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
People attend the funeral of victims of a series of cross-border Pakistani army strikes that Pakistan said targeted hideouts of militants it blames for recent attacks inside the country, in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Wahidullah Kakar)
Relatives and army soldiers carry the casket of an army officer, who was killed in the suicide bombing in the border district of Bannu, for his burial following a funeral prayer in Mansehra, Pakistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Saqib Manzoor)
Local residents stand next to a damaged car at the site of a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Local residents gather as bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
A man inspects a damaged car at the site of a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
A bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
Local residents and civil defense workers look on as a bulldozer clears the rubble of a house hit by a cross-border Pakistani army strike in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat Shah)
