Kabul, Mar 1: Explosions and bursts of gunfire rocked Kabul early Sunday as Afghan forces fired at Pakistani aircraft over the capital, marking a sharp escalation in hostilities between the two neighbours that have now entered their fourth consecutive day of fighting.
The Taliban government said its air defence units targeted Pakistani jets flying over Kabul. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid urged residents not to panic.
“Air defence attacks were carried out in Kabul against Pakistani aircraft. Kabul residents should not be concerned,” he said. It was not immediately clear what was hit or whether there were any casualties.
The latest exchange follows Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan earlier this week targeting what Islamabad described as militant infrastructure. The strikes reportedly hit military installations in Kabul and Kandahar, in one of the deepest incursions into Afghan territory in recent years.
Afghanistan condemned the strikes as a violation of its sovereignty and announced retaliatory operations along the shared border.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif described the situation as “open war” and said Islamabad had launched Operation Ghazab Lil Haq (“Wrath for the Truth”). Pakistani security sources claimed that Afghan posts and camps had been destroyed in the ongoing operation.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asserted that the country’s armed forces had the capability to “crush” any aggression.
On the Afghan side, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani warned that the conflict would be “very costly”, though he indicated that only frontline forces were currently engaged.
The root of the tensions lies in Islamabad’s long-standing accusation that Afghanistan harbours the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that Pakistan says is waging an insurgency inside its territory. Kabul has denied the charge, insisting it does not allow its soil to be used against other countries and describing Pakistan’s security challenges as an internal matter.
Both sides have reported heavy losses, though casualty figures differ and could not be independently verified.
The escalation has raised fears of prolonged fighting along the 1,615-mile (2,600-km) border, threatening a fragile ceasefire and further destabilising the region.
Several countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Russia, China, the European Union and the United Nations, have urged restraint and called for dialogue. The United States said it supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself. Iran, which shares borders with both nations, had earlier offered to facilitate talks before itself coming under U.S.–Israeli strikes.
The latest clashes come amid heightened regional tensions following U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks on U.S. targets in Gulf states, adding to concerns of a broader conflict in South and West Asia.
