In short:
Afghanistan's Taliban government says a deadly aerial attack by Pakistani military on its Paktika province killed at least 46 people.
The Taliban condemned the attack and vowed to retaliate.
A Pakistani official said Pakistan had carried out air strikes against the Pakistani Taliban, a close ally of the Afghan Taliban.
The Afghan Taliban says a bombardment by Pakistani military aircraft in eastern Afghanistan has killed at least 46 people, most of whom were women and children.
Deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said six others were injured in the bombing, which targeted four locations in Paktika province on Tuesday.
Afghanistan's foreign office said it summoned Pakistan's head of mission in Kabul to deliver a formal protest note to Islamabad on the attack, warning the diplomat of the consequences of such actions.
"Afghanistan considers this brutal act a blatant violation of all international principles and an obvious act of aggression," Enayatullah Khowrazmi, a spokesman for the Ministry of National Defence, said in a statement.
"The Islamic Emirate will not leave this cowardly act unanswered."
The Taliban says most of the victims were women and children. (AFP)
Pakistan's government has not commented on the latest strikes.
However, the Pakistani military said on Wednesday that security forces killed 13 insurgents in an intelligence-based operation in South Waziristan, a district located along eastern Afghanistan's Paktika province.
A Pakistani official with knowledge of the matter, and speaking anonymously, told Reuters Pakistan had carried out air strikes against a camp of the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) Islamist militant group.
TTP pledges allegiance to — and gets its name from the Afghan Taliban — but is not directly a part of the group that rules Afghanistan.
Its stated aim is to impose Islamic religious law in Pakistan, as the Taliban has done in Afghanistan.
Terrorism and tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan
A major TTP attack in Pakistan's South Waziristan area, which borders the location of the alleged camp targeted in Afghanistan, killed 16 Pakistani security personnel on Saturday.
Afghanistan's defence ministry identified those killed in Pakistan's bombardment as "mostly Waziristani refugees" — indicating that they were from Pakistan's Waziristan territory.
The neighbours have a strained relationship, with Pakistan saying that several TTP attacks that have occurred in its country have been launched from Afghan soil — a charge the Afghan Taliban denies.
Their relationship was complicated in March when the Taliban accused Pakistan of carrying out two air strikes on its territory, killing five women and children.
Pakistan said at the time it had conducted "intelligence-based anti-terrorist operations" in Afghanistan but did not specify the nature of the operations.
Reuters/AP
