Pakistan launched airstrikes targeting cities across Afghanistan early Friday, including Kabul and Kandahar, and declared “open war” with the Taliban regime, following retaliatory attacks by Afghan forces on Pakistani border posts. The escalation marks a significant deterioration in relations between the two nations, threatening a fragile ceasefire negotiated last year.
“Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now This proves open war between us and you [Afghanistan],” Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Muhammad Asif, stated after the strikes, according to reports. The Pakistani military claimed its strikes targeted Afghan defense facilities, and that 274 Afghan Taliban officials had been killed and more than 200 wounded. Twelve Pakistani soldiers were reported to have died in the preceding clashes.
The strikes came in response to attacks launched late Thursday night by the Taliban’s military on Pakistani positions along their 1,600-mile border. Kabul stated those attacks were retaliation for Pakistani bombing of what it claimed were militant camps within Afghanistan over the weekend, which Afghan officials said left at least 18 people dead. Pakistan characterized the Taliban’s actions as “unprovoked.”
Witnesses in Kabul reported hearing blasts and seeing jets overhead as Pakistani airstrikes hit the Afghan capital. A doctor in Kabul, Wali Khan Ahmadi, described the strikes as “like living through a horror movie,” recounting a blast that shook his home around 2:13 a.m. Local time. Video footage verified by Reuters showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from a residential neighborhood in western Kabul and a blaze engulfing a depot.
Pakistan’s military operation, dubbed “Ghazab Lil Haqq” – or “Operation Righteous Fury” – reportedly hit targets in the provinces of Paktia and Kandahar, considered the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban and believed to be the location of the group’s leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada. The Pakistani military claimed to have destroyed 73 Taliban posts along the border and captured more than a dozen positions.
Despite the escalating violence, the Afghan Taliban indicated a willingness to negotiate. Reuters reported that Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said on Friday they were willing to negotiate after the Pakistani strikes.
The United States acknowledged the escalating tensions. Don Brown, Chargé d’Affaires of the U.S. Diplomatic mission to Afghanistan, stated Friday that the U.S. Was “aware of the recent escalation in tensions and outbreak of fighting” and was “monitoring the situation closely.”
