Pakistan declares “open war” with Afghanistan amid unprecedented tensions between neighbours.
Pakistan on Friday bombed major cities in Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul, as Islamabad’s defence minister declared “open war” with the neighbours after months of standoff. The dramatic announcement came as Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers claimed to have launched unprecedented air strikes on several locations in Pakistan, including the capital, Islamabad.
The Taliban-run Afghan Defence Ministry said on Friday that the strikes were carried out “in response to air incursions carried out last night by Pakistani forces in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.” The Taliban said its attacks targeted major Pakistani military bases, command centres and strategic facilities at several locations.
The Taliban did not specify what weapons it used but claimed the airstrike on Pakistani territory was unprecedented, marking a significant escalation in the long-running conflict between the two South Asian neighbours.
“We are aware of the recent increased tensions and fighting between the Taliban and Pakistan and we are closely monitoring the situation,” Don Brown, charge d’affaires at the US diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement on Friday.
Journalists in Kabul and Kandahar heard explosions and the sound of jet planes as Pakistan launched airstrikes on the Afghan capital and a southern power base held by Taliban officials. Pakistan’s latest operation comes after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night in retaliation for earlier air strikes by Islamabad.
Wali Khan Ahmadi, 43, a doctor in Kabul, told CBS News that the Pakistani attacks on Kabul were like living in a horror movie. He said he was sleeping at home when “at about 2:13 a.m. a sudden bright light lit up my room. The windows shook violently and the shock of the explosion almost threw me from my bed.”
He said he ran outside and “looked at them – two missiles flying across the beautiful skies of Kabul, then a big bang and a spark of fire near downtown Kabul.”
Ahmadi described his fear and “the feeling that life could change in an instant”, telling CBS News, “As a doctor, I know horrors can come, yet I felt powerless in that moment – just a man looking up to the sky, hoping for safety.”
Relations between the neighbours have deteriorated in recent months, with land border crossings largely closed. Since the deadly fighting in October, in which more than 70 people from both sides were killed.
Elif Aker/Anadolu via Getty Images
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to take action against terrorist groups carrying out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.
A series of deadly suicide bombings in recent months have rocked both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Shia mosque attack in Islamabad At least 40 people were killed in it, which was claimed by a regional affiliate of the ISIS terrorist group. The same group, ISIS-K or ISIS Khorasan, also claimed a deadly suicide bombing at a Kabul restaurant last month.
“Together we will defend this country,” Sirajuddin Haqqani, the Taliban administration’s interior minister, said during Friday prayers.
Qatar and Türkiye brokered an initial ceasefire, followed by several rounds of talks, but efforts to reach a permanent agreement have failed.
Both armies said they killed dozens of soldiers in the latest round of border violence, which followed several Pakistani attacks on Afghanistan and border skirmishes recently.
Pakistani Information Minister Ataullah Tarar posted on Twitter, “Afghan Taliban defence positions in Kabul, Paktia (province) and Kandahar were targeted,” while Defence Minister Khawaja Asif announced a “total confrontation” with the Taliban government.
We have exhausted our patience. Now it’s an open war between us and you,” he posted on the social media platform.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country’s armed forces “have the full capability to crush any aggressive ambitions.”
An AFP reporter in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar heard the sound of jets overhead, where the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based.
The Taliban government confirmed the Pakistani airstrikes, and spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News that 13 civilians, including women and children, were wounded in the strikes on the Torkham refugee camp near the border, where Afghan nationals expelled by Pakistan have sought refuge.
Mujahid claimed that 55 Pakistani personnel were killed in Taliban attacks; the bodies of 23 Pakistani soldiers were recovered from the border area, and eight injured Pakistani security personnel were captured. He reported that the clashes resulted in the deaths of eight Taliban fighters and the injuries of 11 others.
Pakistan’s prime minister’s spokesman, Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, claimed in a written statement shared with CBS News that 133 Taliban fighters were killed and more than 200 others were wounded in his country’s attacks in Afghanistan.
“We have destroyed twenty-seven Afghan Taliban outposts and captured nine,” he declared. He said more than 80 tanks were also destroyed.
“An immediate and effective response to Pakistan’s aggression continues,” he warned.
CBS News could not independently verify any government casualty claims.
The fight between neighbours is not between equals. Pakistan has one of the most powerful armies in South Asia and maintains military and strategic ties with regional and Western powers, including the US. Pakistan not only has a formidable conventional army but also an air force and a well-established command structure.
On the other hand, the Taliban government of Afghanistan is largely unrecognised by the international community and thus lacks formal diplomatic relations with major Western powers. Isolation has severely limited Kabul’s ability to muster political support, and while the Taliban commands its army of guerrilla fighters, many of them with years of battlefield experience, it lacks a conventional army or air force, and the regime does not control the country’s airspace.
