Pakistan’s defense minister said on Friday that the two neighboring countries had entered an “open war” after overnight cross-border attacks, marking a dramatic escalation in tensions that have simmered for months. Afghanistan said it struck Pakistan late Thursday in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday, while Pakistan responded with airstrikes in Afghanistan early Friday, including in Kabul and two other provinces. The exchange unfolded as international officials urged both sides to de-escalate and protect civilians.
The sequence began after months of tense border clashes, including fighting in October that Pakistan and Afghanistan described as involving soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting in October, but subsequent rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November did not produce a lasting agreement. Since then, the two sides have occasionally traded fire.
Afghanistan’s government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Afghanistan’s attacks against Pakistani military targets were intended as “a message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will respond to every evil act of Pakistan.” Mujahid also told reporters that “Pakistan has never sought to resolve problems through dialogue,” while Afghanistan’s government said the Thursday attack was retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes on border areas.
After the Afghan strikes, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif posted that “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.” Asif said Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2021, and that it expected the Taliban—who seized power in Afghanistan—to focus on the welfare of Afghans and regional stability. Instead, Asif said the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India,” referring to improving ties between India and Afghanistan that Pakistan has long viewed with concern.
Pakistan also accused Afghanistan of “exporting terrorism,” an allegation Pakistan frequently makes as militant violence in the region surges. Pakistan has blamed Afghanistan’s Taliban government for supporting the Pakistani Taliban, known as the TTP, as well as outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The Afghan government and the TTP deny the allegation, and Mujahid said Pakistan’s internal conflict was “a purely domestic issue,” adding that the TTP has been active for nearly two decades.
Both governments reported different casualty numbers from the latest fighting, and neither side’s claims could be independently verified. Pakistan’s army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistani air and ground operations killed at least 274 members of Afghan forces and affiliated militants and wounded more than 400, and that 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 wounded, with one missing in action. Mujahid rejected those figures as “false,” saying 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and that 23 bodies were taken to Afghanistan, while “many” soldiers were captured.
The Afghan government later said 19 civilians were killed and 26 injured when Pakistan struck the provinces of Khost and Paktika. Deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat accused Pakistan of “deliberately targeted the residences of ordinary civilians,” saying most of the dead and wounded were women and children. Earlier, Afghanistan had said a religious school in Paktika was bombed without providing details of casualties.
Separate claims also described military actions beyond the main cross-border exchanges. Pakistan’s air force carried out airstrikes Friday night targeting military installations in Afghanistan’s Laghman province, according to two senior Pakistani security officials who spoke on condition of anonymity; they said an arms depot and key installations were destroyed. Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan’s anti-drone systems shot down several small drones over Abbottabad, Swabi and Nowshera, adding that there were no casualties and that the drones appeared linked to a failed attack by the Pakistani Taliban. Tarar also said the incidents “once again exposed direct linkages between the Afghan Taliban regime and terrorism in Pakistan.”
On the diplomatic front, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held separate phone calls with counterparts from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to discuss the conflict, according to a Turkish official who did not provide further details and spoke on condition of anonymity. The official said Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had facilitated talks between the sides in October.
The United Nations also weighed in. In a statement, UN Secretary-General António Guterres urged both Pakistan and Afghanistan to resolve their differences through diplomacy and to protect civilians. Russia called for an immediate halt to fighting and for a diplomatic resolution, and Russian diplomat Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, told RIA Novosti that Moscow would consider mediating if asked. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to resolve their differences through dialogue during the holy month of Ramadan, and said Tehran was ready to assist in facilitating dialogue.
As the crisis heightened, Pakistan said it relocated dozens of Afghan refugees from the Torkham border area to safer places. Pakistan launched a crackdown in October 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging them to leave voluntarily to avoid arrest and forcibly expelling others, while Iran also began a crackdown around the same time. Since then, millions have crossed the border into Afghanistan, including people born in Pakistan decades ago who had built lives and businesses there. The U.N. refugee agency has said that in 2025, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, with nearly 80,000 returning so far this year.