After Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif declared an “open war” with Afghanistan, loud explosions followed by gunfire were reportedly heard in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, on Sunday morning (1st March), as reported by Reuters. In a counterattack, Taliban reportedly opened fire at Pakistani jets in Kabul following the blasts and the gunfire. The conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan has escalated in recent days, with both countries launching offensives against each other.
“Anti-aircraft fire is being directed at Pakistani aircraft in Kabul,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Sunday. As per reports, Taliban forces have also carried out strikes on Pakistani military camps in Miranshah and Spinwam, under ‘Operation Rad al-Zulm’. This development comes after the Taliban government on Friday said that it was open to negotiations, hours after Pakistan’s strikes in its three provinces. However, the hostilities between the two countries have only increased. Pakistan described the military action against Afghanistan as ‘Operation Ghazab Lil Haq’, claiming that it destroyed key military facilities of Afghanistan in the strikes.
The fresh military hostilities between the two countries began on Thursday (26th February), after Afghanistan’s Islamic Emirates Forces launched an attack on Pakistani forces in the border areas in what the Taliban government described as a retaliation for Pakistan’s earlier airstrikes.
The Afghanistan’s Military of National Defence said in a statement on Thursday that the Afghan forces carried out coordinated counterattacks in eastern and southeastern sectors across the Durand Line near Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan provinces. It claimed that the Afghan forces captured two Pakistani military bases and 19 posts, and killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured several alive. The Minister also said that the Taliban forces captured dozens of light and heavy weapons, ammunition, military supplies and a large military transport vehicle, and destroyed a Pakistani tank.
This was followed by Pakistan launching airstrikes on Afghanistan’s three provinces of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia, during the intervening night of Thursday and Friday (27th February), as confirmed by the Taliban’s spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid. Pakistan’s airstrikes reportedly hit a weapons depot on the western outskirts of Kabul overnight, triggering hours of secondary explosions that rattled homes across Kabul.
The fresh military hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan mark the failure of a ceasefire agreement reached by the two countries in Doha last year. The ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkiye has been followed by several instances of military engagements between the two countries.
