Pakistan bombed Taliban government targets in Afghanistan’s major cities overnight, officials from both countries said on Friday, with Pakistan’s defence minister describing the conflict as “open war,” Reuters reports.
According to Reuters, security sources in Pakistan said the strikes involved air and ground strikes against Taliban posts, headquarters and ammunition depots in multiple sectors along the border.
“Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you (Afghanistan),” Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Friday, according to Reuters.
The strikes threaten a protracted conflict along the 2,600-km (1,615-mile) frontier after a long-running dispute over Islamabad’s accusation that Kabul harbours militants carrying out attacks inside Pakistan. The Taliban have denied the charge and said Pakistan’s security is an internal problem, according to Reuters.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistani forces carried out air strikes in parts of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.
Video shared by Pakistani security officials showed flashes of light in the night from firing along the border and the sound of heavy artillery. A video of strikes on Kabul showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from two sites and a massive blaze in part of the capital Kabul.
Another video showed a building on fire, which the officials said was a Taliban headquarters in Paktia province.
“Pakistani counter-strikes against targets in Afghanistan continue,” a Pakistani government spokesperson, Mosharraf Zaidi, said in a post on X, describing the action as a response to “unprovoked Afghan attacks.”
Zaidi said 133 Afghan Taliban fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded, with 27 posts destroyed and nine captured.
Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 19 posts seized, while eight Taliban fighters were killed, 11 wounded and 13 civilians injured in Nangarhar province. Pakistan has been on high security alert since it launched air strikes earlier this week that Islamabad said targeted camps of Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, and Islamic State militants in eastern Afghanistan. Kabul said the strikes killed 13 civilians and reiterated it does not allow militants to operate from its territory. The Taliban also warned there would be a strong response.
Նյութերը գեներացվում են տարբեր կայքերից արհեստական բանականության միջոցով