(Al Jazeera Media Network) Pakistan has launched air strikes on Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and other cities, as clashes escalate along the two countries’ shared border.
On Friday, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said Islamabad’s patience had run out with the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan, declaring that the two countries are now at “open war”.
The declaration came hours after Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghanistan was carrying out “large-scale offensive operations” against the Pakistani military along the Durand Line, which separates the two countries.
This follows weeks of fighting along the countries’ shared border, with both sides claiming that dozens of people have been killed.
Hostilities are taking place against a backdrop of an escalation in tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities since the latter’s return to power in 2021.
On Friday, Pakistani officials said Afghan forces had attacked military positions close to the border, prompting Islamabad to launch air strikes on targets inside Afghanistan, including in the capital, Kabul, and in other cities.
“Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you,” Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said on X.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar wrote on X that “Afghan Taliban defence targets” had been struck in Kabul, the southeastern Paktia province and southern Kandahar, while Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared what he described as an “open war” with the Taliban government.
Afghan government spokesperson Mujahid also confirmed in an X post that these three provinces had been hit.
The Associated Press reported that the attacks had destroyed two brigade bases in Afghanistan, citing two senior Pakistani security officials who spoke to the agency on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Pakistani state media outlet Pakistan TV claimed in a report that the country’s forces had “destroyed” a number of Taliban locations in a few hours.
According to the outlet, the locations attacked in Afghanistan included a Taliban brigade headquarters and ammunition depot in Kandahar, as well as Taliban posts in the Wali Khan sector, near the Shawal sector, in the Bajaur sector and in Angoor Adda.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said it was also targeting Afghan Taliban forces in several districts of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province: Chitral, Khyber, Mohmand, Kurram and Bajaur.
Later on Friday, gunfire and shelling were reported near the key Torkham border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
AFP reported Afghan soldiers were heading towards the frontier.
The Torkham crossing has remained open for Afghans returning en masse from Pakistan, despite the land border being largely shut since fighting between the neighbours in October.
