Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring the neighbours at “open war” following months of tit-for-tat clashes.AFP reporters in Kabul and Kandahar heard blasts and jets overhead until dawn, and the Taliban government said Pakistani surveillance aircraft were flying over Afghanistan on Friday afternoon.In Kandahar, where Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, an AFP reporter also heard drones on Friday evening.The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of the Afghan capital and its first air strikes on the southern power base of the Taliban authorities since they returned to power in 2021.Near the key Torkham border crossing, an AFP journalist heard shelling on Friday morning, and a camp accommodating Afghans who had returned from Pakistan was hit by the fighting overnight.”Children, women, and old people were running,” Gander Khan, a 65-year-old man, told AFP in front of rows of tents at the Omari camp.Pakistan’s latest operation came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night in retaliation for earlier air strikes by Islamabad.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan forces killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured several others, while putting the death toll among Afghan troops at 13.A spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister said 297 Afghan Taliban and militants had been killed, and that 29 locations across Afghanistan had been “subjected to aerial targeting,” in an update late Friday. Spokesman Mosharraf Zaidi did not provide an update on the number of Pakistani troops killed, which Islamabad earlier gave as 12.Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.The sharp surge in hostilities drew international concern, with China, Britain, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross calling for immediate de-escalation and return to dialogue.- Relations plunge -Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with 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 act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared an “all-out confrontation” with the Taliban government, posting on X: “Now it is open war between us and you.”Taliban government spokesman Mujahid said Afghanistan wanted “dialogue” to resolve the conflict.”We have repeatedly emphasised a peaceful solution, and still want the problem to be resolved through dialogue,” Mujahid told a news conference, adding: “Right now, Pakistani planes, reconnaissance aircraft, are flying over Afghanistan’s airspace.”- Delicate ceasefire broken -The strikes mark a “significant and dangerous escalation from earlier clashes”, South Asia expert Michael Kugelman said on X.”Pakistan appears to have expanded its targeting beyond TTP to the Taliban regime itself,” he said.Several rounds of negotiations between Islamabad and Kabul followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.After repeated breaches of the initial truce, Saudi Arabia intervened this month, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.Iran, which shares an eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, offered to help “facilitate dialogue”, while Saudi Arabia and Qatar moved to allay tensions, and China said it was “working with” both countries while calling for calm.In Geneva, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said the organisation was preparing relief operations but stressed that “no humanitarian response can compensate for political will to respect the rules of war and prioritise de-escalation”. – Kabul streets quiet -Streets in Kabul were quiet after daybreak, in keeping with a Friday during Ramadan in the Muslim-majority nation.At the camp for returnees near Torkham, multiple civilians were wounded in a Pakistan strike, Nangarhar provincial official Qureshi Badlun said.One woman was killed and several others were hospitalised, according to provincial public health spokesman Naqibullah Rahimi.Spokesman Mujahid told AFP that several Pakistani soldiers had been “caught alive”, a claim denied by the prime minister’s office in Islamabad.The military operation follows recent Pakistan strikes on Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, which the UN mission in Afghanistan said killed at least 13 civilians. Besides military operations, there have been a series of deadly suicide blasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months. They included an attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 40 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.The militant group’s regional chapter, Islamic State-Khorasan, also claimed a deadly suicide bombing at a restaurant in Kabul last month.burs-je/fox/ksb/aha
Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring the neighbours at “open war” following months of tit-for-tat clashes.AFP reporters in Kabul and Kandahar heard blasts and jets overhead until dawn, and the Taliban government said Pakistani surveillance aircraft were flying over Afghanistan on Friday afternoon.In Kandahar, where Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, an AFP reporter also heard drones on Friday evening.The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of the Afghan capital and its first air strikes on the southern power base of the Taliban authorities since they returned to power in 2021.Near the key Torkham border crossing, an AFP journalist heard shelling on Friday morning, and a camp accommodating Afghans who had returned from Pakistan was hit by the fighting overnight.”Children, women, and old people were running,” Gander Khan, a 65-year-old man, told AFP in front of rows of tents at the Omari camp.Pakistan’s latest operation came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night in retaliation for earlier air strikes by Islamabad.Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan forces killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured several others, while putting the death toll among Afghan troops at 13.A spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister said 297 Afghan Taliban and militants had been killed, and that 29 locations across Afghanistan had been “subjected to aerial targeting,” in an update late Friday. Spokesman Mosharraf Zaidi did not provide an update on the number of Pakistani troops killed, which Islamabad earlier gave as 12.Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.The sharp surge in hostilities drew international concern, with China, Britain, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross calling for immediate de-escalation and return to dialogue.- Relations plunge -Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with 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 act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power.Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared an “all-out confrontation” with the Taliban government, posting on X: “Now it is open war between us and you.”Taliban government spokesman Mujahid said Afghanistan wanted “dialogue” to resolve the conflict.”We have repeatedly emphasised a peaceful solution, and still want the problem to be resolved through dialogue,” Mujahid told a news conference, adding: “Right now, Pakistani planes, reconnaissance aircraft, are flying over Afghanistan’s airspace.”- Delicate ceasefire broken -The strikes mark a “significant and dangerous escalation from earlier clashes”, South Asia expert Michael Kugelman said on X.”Pakistan appears to have expanded its targeting beyond TTP to the Taliban regime itself,” he said.Several rounds of negotiations between Islamabad and Kabul followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.After repeated breaches of the initial truce, Saudi Arabia intervened this month, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.Iran, which shares an eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, offered to help “facilitate dialogue”, while Saudi Arabia and Qatar moved to allay tensions, and China said it was “working with” both countries while calling for calm.In Geneva, ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said the organisation was preparing relief operations but stressed that “no humanitarian response can compensate for political will to respect the rules of war and prioritise de-escalation”. – Kabul streets quiet -Streets in Kabul were quiet after daybreak, in keeping with a Friday during Ramadan in the Muslim-majority nation.At the camp for returnees near Torkham, multiple civilians were wounded in a Pakistan strike, Nangarhar provincial official Qureshi Badlun said.One woman was killed and several others were hospitalised, according to provincial public health spokesman Naqibullah Rahimi.Spokesman Mujahid told AFP that several Pakistani soldiers had been “caught alive”, a claim denied by the prime minister’s office in Islamabad.The military operation follows recent Pakistan strikes on Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, which the UN mission in Afghanistan said killed at least 13 civilians. Besides military operations, there have been a series of deadly suicide blasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months. They included an attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 40 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.The militant group’s regional chapter, Islamic State-Khorasan, also claimed a deadly suicide bombing at a restaurant in Kabul last month.burs-je/fox/ksb/aha
