Kabul says the strikes killed nine women and children in Kunar and Helmand provinces.

Pakistan has targeted “camps and hideouts” used by armed groups in two locations in Afghanistan and killed at least 22 fighters, its Ministry of Information says.

The ministry gave the details of air attacks by Pakistani forces on Thursday, even as Kabul accused Islamabad of killing at least nine women and children in attacks on its Kunar and Helmand provinces.

Al Jazeera could not independently verify the claims made by both sides.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban government, said the attacks took place late on Wednesday and that at least nine people were killed and 11 others wounded.

In a post on X, he said the attacks on northeastern Kunar and southern Helmand provinces destroyed three houses.

“We condemn this act and consider it an aggression and crime against all accepted principles,” Mujahid wrote.

Pakistan’s Information Ministry said the attacks were based on “credible intelligence” and targeted two armed groups – the Pakistan Taliban, also known by the acronym TTP, and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA).

“Targets were destroyed with precision and initial reports suggest killing of twenty two terrorists,” the ministry said in a statement on X.

“Large quantities of weapons ⁠and ammunition stored at these hideouts was also destroyed,” it ⁠said.

The attacks come amid an escalation in fighting between the neighbouring countries after three months of relative calm. Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring armed groups, including the TTP, and carrying out cross-border attacks on its territory.

Reporting from Islamabad, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said the BLA has been responsible for an increasing number of attacks in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, while the Pakistan Taliban has been carrying out attacks in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

In November 2022, a brief ceasefire between the TTP and the Pakistani government, with the Taliban in Afghanistan mediating, broke down, following which armed groups have been staging an increasing number of attacks, Hyder said.

“Every time there is an attack on the Pakistani side, Pakistan then carries out air strikes,” he said.

The Afghan government ‌denies harbouring armed groups and says the Pakistani attacks have targeted civilian homes, killing and wounding women and children.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said last week it had documented more than 1,100 civilian casualties in the country in cross-border violence so far this year.