Pakistan said it targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan’s Kandahar region overnight, as cross-border fighting erupted between the two neighbors late last month and showed no sign of abating, according to the government in Islamabad. The fighting, the AP reported, has included Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and Islamabad has described the conflict as an “open war,” raising concerns among regional observers about stability.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X that Pakistan’s military struck equipment storage facilities and “technical support infrastructure” in Kandahar during the overnight attacks. He said the strikes targeted militant assets rather than civilians.
Afghanistan’s government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Pakistan struck two locations, including a site used by security guards during the day that was empty at night, and a drug rehabilitation center that suffered slight damage. Mujahid said there were no casualties and said the strikes showed Pakistan was “continuing to invade and fuel the fire of war.”
Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said it responded on Sunday by carrying out an attack on a Pakistani army camp in Pakistan’s South Waziristan area. The ministry said the attack destroyed most of the camp’s command center and other facilities, and inflicted heavy casualties on the Pakistani military.
Pakistan rejected Afghanistan’s account, saying it was “propaganda.” Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said a small drone had been struck down and that “no military installation or infrastructure was hit,” disputing Afghanistan’s characterization of the results.
Afghanistan also said it carried out operations inside Pakistan across the border from Kunar and Nangarhar provinces, claiming to have captured a Pakistani military outpost and killed several soldiers. Pakistan rejected those claims as well.
The latest exchanges come after the conflict upended a ceasefire brokered by Qatar last October following fighting that had killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The AP reported that the clashes began late February, when Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack into Pakistan in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan days earlier that Pakistan said had killed only civilians.
On Sunday, a mortar fired from Afghanistan destroyed a home in Bajaur, a district in northwestern Pakistan, killing at least four members of the same family and wounding two others, according to local government official Adnan Khan. Both sides have accused the other of targeting civilians, and dozens have been killed since the renewed fighting began.
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said Saturday that Afghanistan’s government had “ crossed a red line ” by launching drone attacks on civilian areas in Pakistan. Hours later, the AP reported that Pakistan carried out strikes on an Afghan drone storage facility, continuing the cycle of retaliatory allegations.