Pakistan has declared “open war” with Afghanistan after carrying out air strikes on the capital Kabul and the provinces of Kandahar and Paktika.
“Loud blasts shook the Afghanistan capital of Kabul in the early hours of the morning, according to an AFP news team on the ground,” BBC reported.
Mosharraf Zaidi, the spokesperson for Pakistan’s prime minister, said the Pakistani strikes had destroyed 27 Afghan Taliban military posts and captured nine others.
“A total of 133 Afghan Taliban are confirmed killed, more than 200 wounded. Many more casualties estimated in strikes in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar military targets,” he said, claiming that “two Corps Headquartes, three Brigade Headquarters, two ammunition depots, one logistics base, three battalion headquarters, two sector headquarters and more than eighty (80) tanks, artillery, and armed personnel carriers have been destroyed.”
“Pakistan’s immediate and effective response to aggression continues,” he added.
The Taliban defence ministry said that it had captured 19 Pakistani military posts and two bases on Thursday night – claiming a total of 55 Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghanistan was carrying out “large-scale offensive operations” against the Pakistani military “along the Durand Line” that separates the two countries, Aljazeera said. The Durand Line is a disputed area and clashes frequently take place in the area.
The strikes are seen as an escalation of persistent border clashes between the two nations and it is currently not possible for media outlets to independently verify the figures.
Khawaja Asif, Pakistan’s defence minister, said: “Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is open confrontation. Now there will be decisive action.”!
“Pakistan’s army has not come from across the seas – we are your neighbours, and we know your reality well,” he said.
But former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai said on X that the country “will defend their beloved homeland with complete unity in all circumstances and will respond to aggression with courage”.
“Pakistan cannot free itself from the violence and bombings – those problems it has created itself – but must change its own policy and choose the path of good neighbourliness, respect, and civilised relations with Afghanistan,” he wrote.
Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of providing support to fighters from the Pakistani Taliban – or the TTP – which was formed in 2007 by armed militants in northwest Pakistan.
The TTP has carried out attacks on markets, mosques, airports, military bases, police stations and also gained territory – mostly along the border with Afghanistan, but also deep inside Pakistan, Aljazeera reports.
The group also fought alongside the Afghan Taliban against US-led forces in Afghanistan and hosted Afghan fighters in Pakistan.
The TTP is distinct from the Taliban in Afghanistan but shares deep ideological, social and linguistic ties with the group. Pakistan accuses the Taliban of providing sanctuary to the TTP on Afghan soil, a charge Kabul denies.
Pakistan has launched military operations against the TTP on its own soil with limited success, although an offensive that ended in 2016 drastically reduced attacks till a few years ago.
Relations between the neighbouring countries have remained tense since deadly border clashes in October.
“This is a terrible dynamic that must stop,” said Zalmay Khalilzad, a diplomat who served as the US special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation from 2018 to 2021, told BBC. .
“Innocent Afghans and Pakistanis are getting injured or killed,” he wrote on X.
“A better option is a diplomatic agreement between the 2 countries that neither would allow its territory to be used by individuals and groups to threaten the security of the other.”