Airstrikes hit Kabul, hours after Afghanistan attacks Pakistan

KABUL, Afghanistan: Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, Afghanistan’s government spokesperson said, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the neighboring countries that made a Qatar-mediated ceasefire appear increasingly shaky.

At least three explosions were heard in Kabul, but there was no immediate information on the exact location of the strikes in the Afghan capital, or of any potential casualties. Government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistan also carried out airstrikes in Kandahar to the south and in the southeastern province of Paktia.

Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, in a post on X, declared “open war” on the Taliban government. “Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is open war between us and you,” he wrote.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the strikes on Afghanistan were a “befitting response,” as blasts and gunfire rang out in the cities of Kabul and Kandahar.

“Pakistan’s armed forces have given a befitting response to the Afghan Taliban’s open aggression,” said Naqvi, hours after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops in what the Taliban government said was retaliation for earlier deadly air strikes.

Two senior Pakistani security officials told The Associated Press that Pakistan’s military carried out airstrikes targeting what they described as Afghan military facilities in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia provinces, allegedly destroying two brigade bases, but they didn’t mention any potential casualties.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

Afghanistan said its military launched its attack across the border into Pakistan late Thursday in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday, and claimed to have captured more than a dozen Pakistani army posts.

Pakistan’s government, which had described last Sunday’s airstrikes as an attack on militants harbored in the area, described Thursday’s Afghan attack as unprovoked, and dismissed claims that army posts had been captured.

“Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is open war between us and you,” Pakisn Defense Minister Khawaja Asif posted on X.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urges both sides to protect civilians as required under international law and “to continue to seek to resolve any differences through diplomacy,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

Afghan strikes were retaliatory

“In response to the repeated rebellions and insurrections of the Pakistani military, large-scale offensive operations were launched against Pakistani military bases and military installations along the Durand Line,” Mujahid said in a post on X Thursday night. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the retaliatory attacks occurred along the border in six provinces.

The two countries’ 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) long border is known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has not formally recognized.

Differing casualty figures

The two sides reported widely differing casualty figures.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said 55 Pakistani soldiers had been killed, including some whose bodies had been taken into Afghanistan, while “several others were captured alive.” It put its own casualties at eight killed and another 11 wounded. The ministry said it had destroyed 19 Pakistani army posts and two bases, and that the fighting had ended at midnight, about four hours after the start of the attack.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, however, said the number of Pakistani soldiers killed stood at two, with three others wounded. He said 36 Afghan fighters had been reported killed. In a post on X, he said Pakistan was giving a “strong and effective response” to what he called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan.

Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured. Later, in a post on X, he added that at least 133 Afghan fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded, saying that 27 Afghani posts were also destroyed and nine fighters were captured. He didn’t specify where the victims died, and just added that there would be “many more casualties estimated in strikes in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar military targets.”