Pakistan strikes on neighbouring Afghanistan have killed 10 people – among them nine children – a Taliban government spokesperson has said, a day after a suicide attack on a security compound in Pakistan’s Peshawar city.

“The Pakistani invading forces bombed the house of a local civilian resident … As a result, nine children (five boys and four girls) and one woman were martyred” in Khost province, Zabihullah Mujahid said on X.

The bombardment follows a suicide attack that targeted the headquarters of Pakistan’s paramilitary Federal Constabulary force in Peshawar, killing three officers and wounding 11 others.

No group has claimed responsibility, but state broadcaster PTV reported the attackers were Afghan nationals and Pakistan’s president Asif Zardari blamed the “foreign-backed Fitna al-Khawarij” – Islamabad’s term for the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants it accuses of operating from Afghan soil.

Another suicide blast in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad this month killed 12 people and was claimed by a faction of the Pakistan Taliban, which shares the same ideology as the Afghan Taliban.

Islamabad blamed a militant cell which was “guided at every step by the… high command based in Afghanistan” for the capital attack.

Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been fraught since the Taliban swept back to power in 2021, and worsened after deadly border clashes in October that killed around 70 people on both sides.

The fighting ended with a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but talks in Istanbul failed to produce a lasting deal, with security issues, especially Pakistan’s demand that Kabul curb TTP fighters proving a sticking point.

Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering the militants behind a surge in attacks, including the TTP, which has waged a bloody campaign against Pakistan for years.

Kabul denies the charge and counters that Pakistan harbours groups hostile to Afghanistan and does not respect its sovereignty.