Islamabad, Pakistan CNN —
Pakistan’s military conducted further strikes in Afghanistan early Friday, targeting areas in multiple provinces including the capital, Kabul, according to the Taliban. Islamabad stated the action was in response to an attack launched by forces in Afghanistan on Thursday.
“The cowardly Armed Forces of Pakistan carried out aerial attacks in certain areas of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia,” Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said, adding that no casualties had been reported and that retaliatory action was already underway.
The escalating exchange comes as tensions between the neighboring countries reach a critical point. Pakistan said its forces were responding to an attack launched earlier Thursday by the Afghan Taliban.
“The forces of the Taliban regime were punished in the sectors of Chitral, Khyber, Mohmand, Kurram and Bajaur,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said, describing a previous assault from Afghanistan as “unprovoked.”
“Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety of its citizens,” the Pakistani Ministry added.
Pakistani security sources shared a video with CNN purportedly showing Pakistani strikes in Kabul. CNN is unable to independently verify the video.
Both sides reported significantly differing casualty figures. Pakistan claimed its Armed Forces had killed 133 Afghan Taliban fighters, wounded hundreds more, and destroyed multiple Afghan military posts, and equipment. Afghanistan, however, stated that only eight of its soldiers had been killed and 11 wounded.
Thirteen Afghan civilians, including women and children, were also injured when Pakistani strikes hit a refugee camp in Nangarhar, according to Afghanistan’s defense ministry.
Earlier Thursday, the Afghan Armed Forces launched an offensive against Pakistani positions, describing it as retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes against militant camps across the border in Afghanistan that took place on Sunday and left at least 18 people dead.
Afghan forces circulated a video showing military vehicles moving at night accompanied by the sound of heavy gunfire.
Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the retaliatory strikes were carried out along the border in six provinces and concluded at midnight. But following the Pakistani strikes in Kabul, Kandahar and other provinces, Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson, said that “large-scale retaliatory operations have begun once again against Pakistani military centers from Kandahar and Helmand.”
Hamdullah Fitrat, a deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, claimed Afghan forces had killed 40 Pakistani soldiers in the northeastern province of Kunar and captured 15 Pakistani military border posts. He added that Kabul’s troops were deployed along the “Durand Line,” the disputed 2,577-kilometer border between the two countries. The Pakistani military did not immediately respond, and CNN cannot independently verify the claims.
Pakistan’s Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, acknowledged that Pakistan suffered casualties but gave much lower figures than those released by Afghanistan, stating that two Pakistani soldiers had been killed and three injured.
Without referencing specific claims from Afghanistan, Tarar accused the government in Kabul of “spreading false and baseless propaganda.”
“After defeat in the field, the Afghan Taliban regime is resorting to lies and propaganda,” he posted on X.
Sunday’s strikes in Pakistan targeted camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), and their affiliates, as well as a group associated with Islamic State, which Islamabad blames for a series of attacks in Pakistan, the Ministry of Information said.
Pakistan has seen weeks of deadly attacks and says it has “credible evidence” they were carried out by militants “on the orders of their leaders and handlers in Afghanistan.”
The minister highlighted Pakistan’s role in hosting millions of Afghan refugees for the past 50 years, and being home to millions of Afghans “earning their livelihood on our soil.”
“Our patience has run out,” Asif said. “Now it is open war between us and you.”
A fragile ceasefire had been in place between the two countries since October, following a period of the most lethal cross-border violence in years.
In an interview with CNN in November, Pakistan’s Defense Minister, Khawaja Asif, said his country wanted to “eliminate” the leadership of the TTP in Afghanistan and that it would employ “whatever means were at our disposal.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
