Pakistan Strikes Kill Four in Afghanistan, Talks at Risk

Pakistan launched mortar and rocket attacks on Afghanistan on Monday, killing four people and injuring 70 more, according to the Afghan Taliban government. The strikes mark a fresh escalation in cross-border fighting between the two countries. The Taliban did not specify which districts or provinces were hit, but the scale of casualties points to a significant exchange. The attacks come at a particularly sensitive moment: peace talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan were already fragile, and renewed fighting puts those negotiations at serious risk. Pakistan and Afghanistan have a long history of mutual accusations over cross-border militancy, and each flare-up in violence tends to harden both sides' positions. The immediate question is whether diplomatic channels can hold or whether Monday's strikes push both governments into a deeper military standoff. No response or statement from Pakistan was included in the available reporting, so the full picture of what triggered the attacks remains unclear.