The Pakistani government today declared "open war" on the de facto Taliban authorities, following an Afghan attack on the border of the two countries on Thursday, which prompted Islamabad to launch airstrikes in retaliation, above all in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
The armed forces struck various installations on Afghan territory overnight, including in the cities of Kabul and Kandahar, the country's largest, which Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi described as "befitting retaliation" for the previous day's Afghan attack.
"Our cup of patience has run out. Now there is open war between us and you," Pakistani Defense Minister Asif Khawaja said via X.
"Our armed forces have the full capability to crush any aggressive ambitions," to "pulverize" them, Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif said, according to a statement released by his government via X.
AFP journalists in the Afghan capital heard a series of explosions in Kabul and the sound of military aircraft in the early hours of the morning. In Kandahar (south), where Taliban supreme leader Himbatullah Akhundzada is based, another AFP journalist also heard fighter jets flying overhead.
Relations between nuclear-armed Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, have deteriorated rapidly in recent months. Border crossings between the two countries had already been largely closed following previous fighting between the two sides in October that left more than seventy dead.
"Large-scale attacks"
Yesterday the Taliban army spoke of "large-scale attacks" against Pakistani positions on the border, in retaliation for Pakistani bombings over the weekend.
Islamabad said it targeted "terrorist" camps. According to an AFP source, more than 80 people were killed.
In retaliation, according to the spokesman for the de facto Taliban government, Zambiullah Mujahid, Afghan forces targeted 15 forward positions of the Pakistani armed forces yesterday, killing "dozens" of their members.
The Afghan de facto government confirmed today the Pakistani airstrikes, which, however, according to Mr. Mujahid, did not cause any casualties.
Defense positions of the "Afghan Taliban regime" in Kabul and the provinces of "Paktia and Kandahar" were targeted, Pakistani Information Minister Ataullah Tarar said via X.
Minister Tarar spoke of at least 133 dead and over 200 wounded among the Afghan Taliban; the same account was also given via X by Mosharraf Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
Taliban authorities, for their part, reported that they carried out new attacks today against "Pakistani soldier positions, on a "large scale".
The Afghan Ministry of Defense said eight of its soldiers were killed in yesterday's ground attack, launched from the Afghan provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar.
Pakistan's intelligence ministry accused Taliban forces of "unilaterally opening fire on various positions" along the border with Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Short truce
The attack by Afghan forces followed Pakistani airstrikes over the weekend in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces that Islamabad presented as retaliation for suicide bombings in Pakistan.
According to a statement released by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, the bombings, the heaviest since October, killed at least 13 people. The Taliban government said 18 people were killed.
Longtime allies, Afghanistan and Pakistan have been engaged in sporadic conflicts since retaking power in Kabul in the summer of 2021.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of providing safe havens to armed groups operating on Pakistani territory. Kabul denies this.
Since October, only Afghans who want to return to their homeland have been allowed to cross the land crossings at the borders of the two countries.
A short-lived ceasefire agreed on October 19, thanks to mediation by Qatar and Turkey, was clinically dead just nine days later, as Islamabad accused Kabul of orchestrating attacks carried out by the Pakistani Taliban (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan).
Several rounds of negotiations since then have not resolved the conflict, although Saudi intervention led to the release of three Pakistani soldiers who were taken prisoner by Afghan presidential fighters.
Source: protothema.gr
