Pakistan declares state of ‘open war’ after bombing major Afghan cities | Pakistan

Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul; Islamabad’s defense minister has declared its hostile neighbors in a state of “open war” as the cycle of retaliatory attacks escalates further.

Witnesses in Kabul and Kandahar in southern Afghanistan reported explosions and jets until dawn. The Taliban government later said Pakistani surveillance planes were still flying over Afghanistan.

The wave of attacks came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night, following earlier airstrikes by Islamabad.

The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of the Afghan capital and the first airstrikes on Kandahar, the southern power base of the Taliban movement that returned to power in 2021.

Afghan officials in eastern Nangarhar province said clashes continued in the Torkham border area on Friday morning. The province’s information directorate said Pakistani mortar fire hit civilian areas, including a refugee camp. It was stated that Afghanistan, in response, targeted Pakistani army outposts on the border. It was reported that at least 12 people died and dozens lost their lives.

Tensions have been high between Pakistan and Afghanistan for months, with dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants killed in border clashes in October.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups carrying out cross-border attacks and allying with its historical enemy and regional rival India.

A ceasefire brokered by Qatar ended the fighting last year, but several peace talks in Istanbul in November failed to reach a formal agreement.

At around 8pm on Thursday, Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistan’s deadly airstrikes on Afghan border areas on Sunday. Hours later, Pakistan bombed the Afghan capital Kabul and two other provinces on Friday, hours after the cross-border attack.

At least three explosions were heard in Kabul, with both sides making different claims about the death toll and the locations hit.

A resident of Kabul’s affluent Wazir Akbar Khan district, adjacent to the Taliban headquarters that the Pakistani air force struck on Thursday night, said he heard a large explosion not far from his home near Taliban administrative offices and ministries.

He said: “After the explosion, shots were fired and we stayed at home in fear and did not go out. We only knew that it was Pakistan’s airstrikes in October, but we did not know if there were any casualties because no one was allowed to go to the area and the Taliban media said there were no casualties.”

While the resident asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the Taliban, he said many people in Kabul are worried and afraid. “It is clear that the war will never end in Afghanistan, even after the withdrawal of American forces… We just need to live in peace. Unfortunately, civilians are suffering everywhere, especially in Afghanistan.”

Attaullah Tarar, Pakistan’s federal minister for information and broadcasting, claimed that 133 Afghan Taliban officials were killed, more than 200 injured and other possible casualties in attacks in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar on Friday.

Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Friday that his country’s armed forces could “crush” the attackers, while his defense minister declared “open war”.

Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif, in a post on channel X, said that Pakistan hopes for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces and expects the Taliban to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability. Instead, he claimed, the Taliban recruited militants from around the world and began “exporting terrorism.”

“We have now run out of patience. There is now an open war between us,” he said.

Islamabad frequently accuses its western neighbor of being behind rising militant violence in Pakistan and accuses Afghanistan of supporting the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) and outlawed Baloch separatist groups.

Pakistan accuses the TTP, which is separate from but closely allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan, of operating from within Afghanistan. Both the group and Kabul deny this accusation.

Pakistan also frequently accuses neighboring India of supporting the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and the Pakistani Taliban, allegations that New Delhi denies.

Afghanistan’s defense ministry said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed in border clashes on Thursday, some of their bodies were taken to Afghanistan and many of them were “captured alive”. In the statement, it was stated that 8 Afghan soldiers were killed and 11 soldiers were injured. The Ministry reported that 19 police stations and two bases belonging to the Pakistani army were destroyed.

Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistani prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, had earlier denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured.

The border clashes began after 8 pm on Thursday night, when the Afghan Taliban attacked various border posts in various parts of Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on the border with Afghanistan.

The unstable areas of Bajaur and Kurram on the border with Afghanistan were most affected by the fire and mortars of the Afghan Taliban. A resident of Bajaur district said mortars hit Bara Lagharai village in neighboring Mahmund district, killing at least two civilians and wounding at least six others.

A resident of Bajaur said: “The village is on the border and mortars are falling directly on people’s homes as the village is at the mercy of Taliban attacks. Security posts were being fired on and the village [very close to] Afghanistan.”

Shahid Ali, deputy commissioner of Bajaur, confirmed the number of dead and injured and said five rounds of artillery fire were fired from the border by the Afghan Taliban on civilians’ homes.

Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have risen sharply in recent months; Land border crossings have been largely closed since deadly clashes in October that left more than 70 people dead on both sides.

Efforts to reach a permanent agreement between the two countries have failed; negotiations and an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Türkiye in October looked increasingly shaky.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a 1,640-mile (2,611 km) border known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan does not officially recognize.