as part of a wave of attacks across the country. "Our patience has now run out," said Khawaja Muhammad Asif following the attacks. The strikes came after the Afghan Taliban announced a major offensive against Pakistani military posts near the border on Thursday night. The latest attacks follow months of clashes between the two neighbouring nations, despite agreeing to a fragile ceasefire in October. Last year's negotiations failed to reach a broader agreement for a complete end to hostilities, with both side blaming each other for not engaging seriously with talks.

The Taliban said a "retaliatory operation" had been launched at around 20:00 local time (15:30 GMT) on Thursday. It said it had captured 19 Pakistani military posts and two bases, adding that 55 Pakistani soldiers had been killed. The BBC has not been able to verify these claims. Pakistan quickly retaliated, saying the Taliban had "miscalculated and opened unprovoked fire on multiple locations" across the border in its north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which had been met with an "immediate and effective response" by Islamabad's security forces. It then launched a series of bombing raids on Afghanistan in the early hours of Friday morning, striking targets in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktika in response to what they called "unprovoked Afghan attacks". All three cities are close to the shared Pakistani-Afghan mountainous border that spans 2,600 km (1,615 miles). Pakistan's military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said it had hit 22 Afghan military targets and killed more that 200 Taliban fighters. At least 12 Pakistani soldiers had died, he added. But the Taliban's spokesman Mujahid said just 13 Taliban fighters had been killed and 22 others injured, while 13 civilians had been injured and an indeterminate number killed. The BBC has not been able to verify these numbers. During these hostilities, both sides have claimed to have inflicted heavy losses on the other while suffering little damage to their own. (BBC)