A fresh round of cross-border strikes between Afghanistan and Pakistan has pushed tensions sharply higher, with airstrikes reported in Kabul and Kandahar just hours after Afghan forces claimed to have launched attacks inside Pakistan.
Early Friday, Afghanistan’s government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and in two other provinces, Kandahar in the south and Paktia in the southeast. The strikes came hours after Afghanistan announced it had launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan late Thursday, describing it as retaliation for earlier Pakistani airstrikes.
According to Associated Press, at least three explosions were heard in Kabul. However, there was no immediate word on the precise locations targeted or whether there were casualties.
Pakistan’s military targeted what they described as Afghan military facilities in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia, said two senior Pakistani security officials, speaking to AP on condition of anonymity. They claimed two brigade bases were destroyed but did not provide details on casualties.
Why Afghanistan says it struck first
Afghanistan said its cross-border attack late Thursday was in response to what it called deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas on Sunday.
“In 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,” Mujahid said in a post on X.
Afghanistan’s defense ministry said the retaliatory operations took place along the border in six provinces. It claimed the fighting lasted about four hours and ended at midnight.
The 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) border between the two countries — known as the Durand Line — has long been a source of dispute. Afghanistan has not formally recognized it.
Conflicting claims on casualties and damage
Apart from the sharp escalation, both sides have offered contrasting accounts of the toll and the extent of the damage.
Kabul’s defense ministry said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and that “several others were captured alive,” reported AP. The ministry also claimed it destroyed 19 Pakistani army posts and two bases.
It added that eight Afghan soldiers were killed and 11 were wounded.
Islamabad’s information minister Attaullah Tarar, meanwhile, gave a very different figure. He said two Pakistani soldiers were killed and three wounded, while 36 Afghan fighters had been killed.
He said Pakistan was giving a “strong and effective response” to what he called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan in a reported post.
Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured. Later, he said at least 133 Afghan fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded.
He also claimed that 27 Afghan posts were destroyed and nine fighters were captured. He did not specify where those casualties occurred but said there would be “many more casualties estimated in strikes in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar military targets.”
None of the claims from either side could be independently verified.
Afghan-Pak tensions
Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been building for months, marked by deadly border clashes in October that killed soldiers, civilians and suspected militants, and by explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan, prompting Islamabad to carry out strikes deep inside Afghanistan against what it called militant hideouts.
A Qatar-mediated ceasefire helped curb large-scale fighting but did not end intermittent exchanges of fire, and several rounds of talks in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
The latest round of clash comes as just days ago, Pakistan said it killed at least 70 militants in fresh border strikes, a claim Afghanistan rejected, saying dozens of civilians, including women and children, were killed in “various civilian areas” such as a religious madrassa and homes, calling the action a violation of its airspace and sovereignty.