SRINAGAR: Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul and other provinces on Friday, with Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declaring the two neighbours were now in “open war” following months of escalating border clashes, according to reports by Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Associated Press (AP).
AFP reported that Pakistani jets struck targets in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar, quoting Information Minister Attaullah Tarar as saying “Afghan Taliban defence targets were targeted.” Asif posted on X that Pakistan’s “patience has reached its limit,” adding: “Now it is open war between us and you.”
AFP journalists in Kabul and Kandahar reported hearing jets overhead and multiple loud explosions followed by gunfire over a period of more than two hours. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the strikes but said there were no casualties.
AP similarly reported that at least three explosions were heard in Kabul early Friday, hours after Afghanistan launched what it described as retaliatory cross-border attacks into Pakistan. Mujahid said Pakistan also carried out airstrikes in Kandahar and the southeastern province of Paktia.
Two senior Pakistani security officials, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity, said the strikes targeted Afghan military facilities and allegedly destroyed two brigade bases, though they did not provide casualty figures.
The escalation follows Afghan claims that its forces launched “large-scale offensive operations” along the Durand Line late Thursday in response to earlier Pakistani airstrikes. Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and several captured, while eight Afghan soldiers were killed and 11 wounded.
Pakistan rejected those figures. Information Minister Tarar told AP that two Pakistani soldiers were killed and three wounded, and claimed 36 Afghan fighters had been killed. Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesperson for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured and said at least 133 Afghan fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded.
The casualty claims from both sides could not be independently verified, AP said.
According to AFP, the latest round of violence follows months of deteriorating relations, with key land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides. Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to curb militant groups that stage attacks inside Pakistan, an allegation the Taliban government denies.
AP reported that tensions have remained high despite a Qatar-mediated ceasefire, with occasional cross-border fire continuing. Several rounds of talks in November failed to produce a lasting agreement.
Both agencies reported that civilians were also affected. An Afghan official cited by AFP said a mortar shell struck a refugee camp near the Torkham border crossing, wounding seven refugees, including a woman in serious condition. AP said Afghan authorities were evacuating refugees from the area after missile strikes wounded civilians, including women and children.
On the Pakistani side, police said residents near the border were moving to safer areas amid mortar fire from Afghanistan, though no civilian casualties were immediately reported.
The United Nations also weighed in. AP reported that UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged both sides to protect civilians under international law and to resolve differences through diplomacy.
Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of which Islamabad blames on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, which it says operates from Afghan soil. Kabul and the group deny the charge.
With both governments issuing sharply differing accounts of battlefield gains and losses, and airstrikes now extending to major Afghan cities including Kabul, the confrontation marks one of the most serious escalations between the two neighbours since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
