Pakistan bombs Kabul, the Afghan capital, after fighting on the border

Islamabad.– The Government of Pakistan claimed to have bombed Kabul, the Afghan capital, early this Friday and declared entering an “open war” with its neighboring country, in an escalation of the conflict that has already become the most serious incident between both countries since the return of the Taliban to power. The Pakistani Prime Minister’s spokesperson for foreign media, Mosharraf Zaidi, reported that Pakistani counterattacks hit “military targets” in Kabul, Paktia, and Kandahar. On his side, the main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, confirmed the attacks on the capital and declared that they have not recorded any victims: “The cowardly Pakistani army has carried out bombings in some areas of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia,” he wrote on X. Mujahid added that Afghanistan carried out “important retaliation operations against Pakistani military positions in Kandahar and Helmand.” The forces of the Taliban government and Pakistan have been engaged in intense nocturnal combat since Thursday at several points on the border following the launch of an operation coordinated by Kabul along the so-called Durand Line, which comes five days after a series of Pakistani air incursions. We recommend reading: According to Zaidi, Pakistani attacks have caused the death of 133 Taliban and have left more than 200 injured.

Pakistan declares entering “open war” with Afghanistan

Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif also spoke on the social network X: “Our patience has run out. From now on, we are in an open war between you and us,” he wrote, addressing Afghanistan. “Pakistan has made great efforts to maintain normality directly and through friendly countries. It has engaged in full-fledged diplomacy. But the Taliban have become a representative of India,” Asif justified. The Pakistani government also reported 27 Afghan posts destroyed and 9 captured. Hours earlier, the Taliban government had declared an end to its offensive against Pakistan and claimed to have killed 55 Pakistani soldiers, as well as capturing two bases and 19 posts along the Durand Line. This confrontation is the result of the bombings carried out by Pakistan last week, which caused at least 17 deaths. Kabul denounced that the victims were civilians, while Islamabad defended that it was an operation against a hundred insurgents from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group, which uses Afghan soil as a base. Pakistan is experiencing a peak in internal violence, with armed attacks in the border areas with Afghanistan that have been on the rise since the Taliban took Kabul in August 2021. Islamabad systematically accuses the Afghan regime of harboring terrorist groups on its territory, an accusation that the Taliban usually reject while denouncing violations of their sovereignty.