Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks during a press conference in Kabul on Sunday. Key border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan were closed after fierce clashes erupted overnight following Taliban accusations that Islamabad had carried out air strikes this week, officials said.
At least 15 Pakistani soldiers have been killed and several others captured after the Taliban forces retaliated to Pakistani airstrikes in Afghan territory, including the capital Kabul.
Intense clashes erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border last night after an attack by the Taliban on Pakistani military posts.
Spokesperson for the Helmand provincial government, Mawlawi Mohammad Qasim Riaz, told the media that 15 Pakistani soldiers were killed during last night’s retaliatory operations by Afghan forces near the Durand Line in Bahrampur district.
He said Afghan forces also captured three Pakistani military outposts during this operation and seized weapons and ammunition. The Taliban announced that they had launched attacks at seven points along the border.
Hitting back after Pakistan’s recent airstrikes in Kabul and Paktika provinces, Afghan forces have started targeting Pakistani posts in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Nangarhar, and Kunar. All these provinces are located along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Hitting back after Pakistan’s recent airstrikes in Kabul and Paktika provinces, Afghan forces have started targeting Pakistani posts in the provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Nangarhar, and Kunar. All these provinces are located along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Three explosions were reported in Afghanistan on Thursday — two in Kabul and one in the southeastern Paktika. The Taliban-run defence ministry blamed Islamabad and accused it of violating its sovereignty.
“In retaliation for air strikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul, Taliban forces are engaged in heavy clashes against Pakistani security forces in various areas” along the border, the Afghan military said in a statement.
Later, defence ministry spokesman Enayat Khowarazm told news agency AFP that the “successful” operations had ended at midnight. “If the opposing side violates Afghanistan’s territory again, our armed forces are ready to defend their territory and will respond firmly.”
Islamabad did not confirm it was behind Thursday’s attacks, but it called on Kabul “to stop harbouring the Pakistani Taliban on its soil.”
Also known as the Pakistani Taliban, the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan is an ideological ally of the Afghan Taliban and assisted it during the 2001-2021 conflict.
Islamabad has accused the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan of having killed hundreds of its soldiers since 2021.
“This evening, Taliban forces began using weapons. We fired first light and then heavy artillery at four points along the border,” a senior official in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, bordering Afghanistan, told AFP.
“Pakistani forces responded with heavy fire and shot down three Afghan quadcopters suspected of carrying explosives. Intense fighting continues, but so far, no casualties have been reported,” he continued.
According to an AFP report, TTP militants have intensified their campaign of violence against Pakistani security forces in the mountainous areas bordering Afghanistan in recent months.
Islamabad alleged that Afghanistan has failed to expel militants using its territory to launch attacks on Pakistan, a charge denied by Kabul.
Earlier this year, a UN report said the TTP “receive substantial logistical and operational support from the de facto authorities”, an apparent reference to the Taliban government in Kabul.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told its National Assembly last week that efforts to convince the Afghan Taliban to stop backing the TTP had failed. “We will no longer tolerate this. United, we must respond to those facilitating them, whether the hideouts are on our soil or Afghan soil,” he said.
On Saturday, the TTP claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in northwest Pakistan that left 20 security officials and three civilians dead, news agency AFP reported.
