As airstrikes struck Kabul on Thursday night, sources told Afghanistan International that around midnight, the Margha Bazaar area in Barmal district of Paktika province was also hit.

It remains unclear who carried out the attack, though Pakistan has previously conducted airstrikes in several eastern Afghan provinces. According to local sources, 29 shops were destroyed in the Margha Bazaar strikes, but the number of casualties has not yet been confirmed. The Taliban have not issued any comment on the incident.

A Taliban spokesperson confirmed an explosion in Kabul on the same night. Reports suggest that unidentified aircraft targeted a vehicle carrying a senior leader of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Pakistan has long accused the Afghan Taliban of harbouring TTP leaders and Baloch separatists inside Afghanistan. Earlier, Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations claimed that around 6,000 TTP fighters and 20 other militant groups, with 60 major hideouts, were operating on Afghan soil.

The Taliban have consistently denied these allegations, insisting that no foreign militant groups are active in Afghanistan and that the country poses no threat to its neighbours or the wider region.