Pakistan launches an “open war” against the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Hours after Afghan troops attacked Pakistani border positions, the airstrikes followed months of deteriorating relations between the two countries. According to officials from both countries, Pakistan and Afghanistan engaged in their fiercest clashes in years on Friday, transforming months of tension and border skirmishes into an open conflict.
Pakistan responded with a series of airstrikes on major cities and military hubs after Afghan troops stormed dozens of Pakistani border positions. According to Lieutenant, the strikes also targeted four border provinces and the southern city of Kandahar, home to the Taliban’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada. Gen.
The spokesperson for the Pakistani military is Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry. At a news conference on Friday, General Sharif stated, “That’s what has been done so far.” “This is going on.” General Sharif stated that Pakistan carried out strikes on more than 20 locations within hours of Afghan troops attacking more than 50 Pakistani border positions. Officials in Afghanistan said that the attack was in response to Pakistani strikes earlier this week.
Zabiullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesman, stated at a news conference in Kandahar on Friday that “our operation last night was a retaliatory operation and a response to Pakistan’s operation, not an attack to start a war against Pakistan.” However, Pakistani officials demonstrated no willingness to put an end to the bloodiest fighting in years.
On social media, Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, stated, “Our cup of patience has overflowed.” “Now we and you are at open war.” The fighting occurs at a time when both nations have been preparing for the effects that potential U.S. military strikes in Iran’s neighbor could have on trade and people’s movement, adding yet another layer of uncertainty to an already volatile region.
An Afghan military officer who arrived at the scene shortly after and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to discuss the clashes publicly claims that at least one ammunition depot in Kabul was bombed.
The strike was confirmed by The New York Times’ examination of satellite images. A bomb had also been dropped on a Kandahar ammunition depot, according to Pakistan’s state broadcaster. Despite the fact that both sides claimed to have killed dozens of combatants in the border clashes, it was unclear how much damage or casualties the airstrikes had caused. Kabul, dotted with checkpoints and officers in uniform even in calmer times, saw a heavier presence of soldiers and security personnel on the streets on Friday.
However, most people continued with their daily routines and gathered at mosques for midday prayers. The clashes showcased what armies from both countries are well-known for — air power from Pakistan’s side, and ground incursions from Afghanistan’s. According to Ibraheem Bahiss, an Afghanistan analyst at the International Crisis Group, the Taliban used and mastered ground incursions on isolated military outposts during their 20-year insurgency against the U.S.-led coalition. “From Kabul’s perspective, it looks at how to respond better, and the Pakistanis have responded with overwhelming force,” Mr. Bahiss said.
Mr. says, “The two sides continue to do what they think are measured responses.” Bahiss continued. “But they keep upping the ante.”
Relations between the neighboring countries have deteriorated recently over Pakistan’s accusations that the Afghan government is harboring the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. In recent years, the militant group has killed hundreds of Pakistani security personnel.
In November, they claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a courthouse in Islamabad, Pakistan, that killed a dozen people. Pakistan asserts that the Taliban grant the Pakistani Taliban permission to freely train and operate in Afghanistan, from which they launch attacks across the 1,600-mile mountainous border. Pakistan’s government is accused of attempting to evade responsibility for its own shortcomings in domestic security, which the Taliban deny hosting.
However, Afghan officials privately acknowledge the Pakistani Taliban’s presence in Afghanistan. Countries in the region and beyond have been alarmed by the Pakistani Taliban’s presence and the resurgence of other groups in Afghanistan, including Al Qaeda. China and Russia have put pressure on the Afghan government to control the militant groups that are in the country.
China has maintained diplomatic ties to the Afghan Taliban government, and Russia was the first nation to recognize the group as the country’s legitimate ruler the previous year. The United Nations says that the Afghan government gave the Pakistani Taliban weapons like rifles and drones. Security Committee.
In a report released this month, the United Nations also stated that “Al Qaeda continued to enjoy the patronage of the de facto authorities,” referring to the administration in Afghanistan that is led by the Taliban. Pakistan and Afghanistan released diverging claims on Friday about the number of deaths from the day’s fighting at the border region. Lieutenant, Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said at least 274 people had been killed there, though he made no distinction among civilians, Pakistani Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces.
According to Taliban government spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, 55 Pakistani soldiers had been killed. Pakistan has closed crucial border crossings to civilians and traders since October, only occasionally reopening them to expel Afghans living in Pakistan.
The economies of both countries have been harmed by the suspension of trade and the expulsion of more than a million Afghans just last year. In some villages on the Pakistani side, officials have in recent months instructed families to evacuate as a preventive measure. They have advised residents who chose to remain to seek shelter in basements when tensions flare up.
Zar Wali, a farmer and father of four from a village in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province near the Torkham border crossing, stated, “The border clashes have now become routine, and it has become almost impossible to live here amid firing and mortar shelling.” “We rush our children into the basements and wait for hours, uncertain of what will happen next, when firing begins from both sides,” Mr. Wali added.
Longstanding, cross-border ethnic and family ties have frayed in recent months, and in some Pakistani border districts, local officials have urged villagers to support security forces, residents said.
Murtaza Shah, a schoolteacher in the Kurram border district, stated, “Some villagers have taken up positions alongside security forces in the trenches and are participating in the exchange of fire.” “This is a critical time,” he added. “Just as communities across the border are supporting Taliban fighters, we must stand with our forces.” The clashes on Friday came during the holy month of Ramadan, which United Nations officials had hoped would be a time to broker peace between the two countries. Despite a cease-fire signed in October, although undermined by frequent border clashes, mediation efforts by Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have all failed.
Pakistan’s growing hostility toward the Taliban in recent months is a sharp turn from decades of tacit support for the group. The Afghan Taliban leadership lived in southern Pakistan during the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan. Pakistan’s government initially backed the Taliban when they came back to power in 2021, and there were even talks about Afghanistan joining an economic corridor between China and Pakistan. Now it seems unlikely that would happen.
“This is not a government,” Lt. Gen. In a recent interview with The Times, Pakistan’s military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry talked about the Taliban. They are lords of war. Afghanistan is a space where a nonstate militia is sitting.”
