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Pakistan launched extensive airstrikes targeting military positions across Afghanistan's major cities overnight Friday.
Pakistan's defense minister declared "open war" against the Taliban government as cross-border tensions escalated into the most serious military confrontation between the two nations in years.
Pakistani security sources stated that the strikes involved air and ground attacks against Taliban posts, headquarters and ammunition depots in multiple sectors along the 2,600-kilometer Durand Line frontier.
Both sides reported heavy losses, issuing sharply differing casualty figures that could not be independently verified.
Pakistani government spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi said counterstrikes against targets in Afghanistan were ongoing early Friday, describing the action as a response to "unprovoked Afghan attacks."
Pakistan Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said 133 Afghan fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded in strikes on Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar provinces, with the death toll expected to rise.
Tarar wrote that 27 Afghan military posts were destroyed and nine captured, along with two corps headquarters, three brigade headquarters, ammunition depots, a logistics base and battalion and sector headquarters. More than 80 tanks, artillery systems and armored vehicles were destroyed, he claimed.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that Pakistani forces carried out airstrikes in parts of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.
"The cowardly Pakistani military has carried out airstrikes in certain areas of Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia; fortunately, there have been no reported casualties," Mujahid said on X.
However, Deputy Taliban spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat claimed retaliatory operations killed 55 Pakistani soldiers, with 23 soldiers' bodies and a large quantity of weapons seized. Fitrat said a Pakistani military headquarters and 19 checkpoints were also captured.
Pakistan confirmed the loss of two soldiers.
Video shared by Pakistani security officials showed flashes of light from firing along the border and thick plumes of black smoke rising from two sites in the capital Kabul.
Witnesses in Kabul reported hearing loud blasts, the sound of jets and ambulance sirens.
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on X that the Taliban had "turned Afghanistan into a colony of India" since NATO's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
"They gathered all the world's terrorists in Afghanistan and started exporting terrorism. They deprived their own people of basic human rights," Asif said.
Asif said Pakistan had made every effort to keep the situation normal through direct diplomacy and through friendly countries. "Our patience has run out. Now it is open war between us," he said.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi also condemned Afghanistan's attacks on X.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he is following the cross-border clashes "with concern," calling on both sides to comply with their obligations under international law and ensure the protection of civilians.
Guterres urged both parties to resolve their disputes through diplomacy.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi offered to help "facilitate dialogue" between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"In the holy month of Ramadan, the month of restraint and strengthening solidarity in the Islamic world, it is appropriate for Afghanistan and Pakistan to manage and resolve existing disputes within the framework of good neighborliness and through dialogue," Araghchi stated on X.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to provide any assistance in facilitating dialogue and strengthening understanding and cooperation between the two countries," he added.
The strikes followed days of escalating cross-border tensions. Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Sunday that Islamabad said killed 70 "terrorists" at seven sites it described as "terror camps" along the Afghan border, following recent bombings inside Pakistan.
Afghan officials and the U.N. reported civilian deaths from the Sunday strikes, which Pakistan denied. Afghanistan's Red Crescent said 18 people were killed and many were wounded.
Afghanistan responded with what its Defense Ministry described as "retaliatory operations" against Pakistani positions along the Durand Line, announcing an end to the four-hour operation at midnight local time Thursday, Feb. 26.
Relations have deteriorated in recent months as Pakistan accuses terrorist groups such as Daesh-Khorasan Province (Daesh-K) and Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) of operating from Afghan territory, an allegation Kabul rejects.
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