Pakistan launches deadly airstrikes in Afghanistan as hostilities continue

Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused Pakistan’s military Friday of targeting homes in overnight airstrikes in Kabul and other areas of the country, saying at least six civilians were killed and more than a dozen injured, as fighting between the neighbours entered its third week.

Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on X that Pakistani aircraft also struck fuel depots belonging to the private airline Kam Air near the Kandahar airport in southern Afghanistan. “This company supplies fuel to civilian airlines as well as to United Nations aircraft,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s state-run television reported that the country’s armed forces carried out “successful airstrikes inside Afghanistan” as part of the ongoing operation, targeting what it said were four alleged militant hideouts and their support infrastructure in Afghanistan.

The developments come amid a dramatic increase in tensions between the two countries, which Pakistan has referred to as “open war.” They are adding to concerns about the stability in the region as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran continues with no end in sight, generating great uncertainty.

The dispute is rooted in Pakistan’s belief that Afghanistan’s Taliban government is harbouring militant groups that stage attacks against it, and also that it’s allying with Pakistan’s archrival India. The Taliban denies harbouring the militant groups.

Tensions erupted last month

Pakistan and Afghanistan have been targeting each other’s military installations since late February, when Kabul said it struck Pakistani posts in response to Pakistani attacks along the border. Pakistan’s military has said its operations targeted the Pakistani Taliban and its support networks along the border.

Both sides have claimed to inflict heavy losses in what has become their deadliest fighting in years.

In Kabul, the Defence Ministry said Afghanistan’s air force responded to Pakistan’s attacks by targeting Pakistani military installations in the Kohat district, causing heavy losses.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Information rejected the Afghan Defence Ministry’s claims as baseless. In a statement, it said the Pakistani Taliban attempted to deploy three rudimentary drones in Kohat, but Pakistani forces shot them down. Two civilians were injured by falling debris, it said.

In his posts on X, the Afghan government spokesperson, Mujahid, alleged that Pakistani strikes hit multiple civilian sites and uninhabited locations in Afghanistan’s Paktia and Paktika provinces, as well as other areas. He said the attacks “will not go unanswered.”

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said at least four civilians, including children, were killed in the city and 15 others were injured.

Additionally, Afghanistan’s Department of Information and Culture in Nangarhar province said a Pakistani mortar shell killed a woman and a child there.

The total number of casualties around Afghanistan was unclear.

China attempts to mediate

The latest Pakistani strikes came a day after China’s special envoy, Yue Xiaoyong, arrived in Islamabad and met with his Pakistani counterpart, Mohammad Sadiq, following a visit to Kabul.

Sadiq, Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said he and Yue “discussed threats posed by terrorist groups” and agreed on the need for collective efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability.

Repeated calls from the international community for restraint have had little effect. Pakistan has previously said its strikes along the border and inside Afghanistan are aimed solely at Khawarij, a phrase Islamabad uses for the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.

On Friday, a roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle killed six officers in Lakki Marwat, a district in northwest Pakistan, police official Sajjad Khan said. No one claimed responsibility but suspicion is likely to fall on TTP, which often claim such attacks.

Since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, the TTP has intensified attacks inside Pakistan and along the border. Islamabad says its military operations will continue until Kabul takes verifiable steps to curb the TTP and other militants operating from its territory.

A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting in October, but several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to produce a lasting agreement.