KABUL, Afghanistan: Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, Afghanistan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, in a post on X, declared \u201copen war\u201d on the Taliban government. \u201cOur patience has reached its limit. Now it is open war between us and you,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said the strikes on Afghanistan were a \u201cbefitting response,\u201d as blasts and gunfire rang out in the cities of Kabul and Kandahar.<\/p>\n
\u201cPakistan\u2019s armed forces have given a befitting response to the Afghan Taliban\u2019s open aggression,\u201d said Naqvi, hours after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops in what the Taliban government said was retaliation for earlier deadly air strikes.<\/p>\n
Two senior Pakistani security officials told The Associated Press that Pakistan\u2019s 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\u2019t mention any potential casualties.<\/p>\n
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s government, which had described last Sunday\u2019s airstrikes as an attack on militants harbored in the area, described Thursday\u2019s Afghan attack as unprovoked, and dismissed claims that army posts had been captured.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur patience has reached its limit. Now it is open war between us and you,\u201d Pakisn Defense Minister Khawaja Asif posted on X.<\/p>\n
The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres urges both sides to protect civilians as required under international law and \u201cto continue to seek to resolve any differences through diplomacy,\u201d UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.<\/p>\n
Afghan strikes were retaliatory<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 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,\u201d Mujahid said in a post on X Thursday night. Afghanistan\u2019s Defense Ministry said the retaliatory attacks occurred along the border in six provinces.<\/p>\n
The two countries\u2019 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) long border is known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has not formally recognized.<\/p>\n
Differing casualty figures<\/p>\n
The two sides reported widely differing casualty figures.<\/p>\n
Afghanistan\u2019s Defense Ministry said 55 Pakistani soldiers had been killed, including some whose bodies had been taken into Afghanistan, while \u201cseveral others were captured alive.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
Pakistan\u2019s 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 \u201cstrong and effective response\u201d to what he called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesperson for Pakistan\u2019s 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\u2019t specify where the victims died, and just added that there would be \u201cmany more casualties estimated in strikes in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar military targets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL, Afghanistan: Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, Afghanistan\u2019s 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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":94360,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94347"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94361,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94347\/revisions\/94361"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}