Pakistan in open war with Afghanistan after new strikes , defence minister says

gazetteseries.co.uk · Feb 27, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged cross-border attacks overnight in a dramatic escalation of tensions that led Pakistan’s defence minister to say that the two countries are in a state of “open war”. Afghanistan launched an attack on Pakistan late Thursday, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas on Sunday. Pakistan then carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early on Friday, saying it targeted military installations. Tensions have been high for months. Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harbouring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its arch-rival India. A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting in October, but several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to produce a lasting agreement. The two sides have occasionally traded fire since then. Qatar once again appears to be mediating. Smoke rises after an explosion at a border post in Afghanistan (Saifullah Zahir/AP)Its minister of state, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz al-Khulaifi, spoke on Friday with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to de-escalate tensions, Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X. Afghanistan’s attacks against Pakistani military targets was meant as “a message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will respond to every evil act of Pakistan”, Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said. “Pakistan has never sought to resolve problems through dialogue,” he said. After the Afghan strikes, Pakistan’s defence minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif posted on X: “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.” Mr Asif said Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of Nato forces in 2021 and expected the Taliban, which seized power in the country, to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability. Instead, he said the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India” — a reference to recently improving ties between India and Afghanistan, including offers of enhanced bilateral trade. Afghan Taliban soldiers gather on the Afghan side of a border crossing with Pakistan (Wahidullah Kakar/AP) Pakistan and neighbouring India, both nuclear armed powers, have periodically engaged in wars, clashes and skirmishes since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947. Mr Asif also accused Afghanistan of “exporting terrorism,” an allegation Pakistan frequently levies at its neighbour as militant violence in the country surges. Specifically, Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of supporting the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, as well as outlawed Baloch separatist groups. Pakistan accuses the TTP, which is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, of operating from inside Afghanistan. Both the group and Kabul deny that charge. “Pakistan’s internal conflict is a purely domestic issue and is not a new one,” Mr Mujahid said Friday, noting the TTP had been active for nearly two decades. Pakistan has also frequently accused neighbouring India of backing the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and the Pakistani Taliban, allegations New Delhi denies. An Afghan Taliban soldier gives instructions to drivers on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan (Wahidullah Kakar/AP)Afghanistan said its attack Thursday was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas on Sunday. The governments have issued sharply differing casualty claims. Pakistan’s army spokesperson Lieutenant General 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, while 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 others were wounded. One Pakistani soldier was missing in action. Mr Mujahid rejected the claims of the high number of Afghan casualties as “false”. He said that 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed with the bodies of 23 of them taken to Afghanistan. Taliban fighters look up while manning an armed vehicle at the border with Pakistan (Saifullah Zahir/AP)He also said “many” Pakistani soldiers were captured. Thirteen Afghan soldiers had been killed, he said, and another 22 wounded, while 13 civilians were also wounded. Later on Friday, the Afghan government said that 19 civilians were killed and 26 others injured when Pakistan struck the provinces of Khost and Paktika in south-eastern Afghanistan. Deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat accused Pakistan of having “deliberately targeted the residences of ordinary civilians” and said most of the dead and wounded were women and children. The Afghan government had reported earlier that a religious school in Paktika province was bombed without providing details of casualties. The claims of either side could not be independently verified. Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks to journalists in Kandahar, Afghanistan (Sibghatullah/AP)Pakistan’s air force carried out airstrikes Friday night targeting military installations in Afghanistan’s Laghman province, two senior Pakistani security officials said. They said an arms depot and two key military installations were destroyed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media on the record. Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan’s anti-drone systems shot down several small drones over the north-western cities of Abbottabad, Swabi, and Nowshera on Friday. He said they appeared to be part of a failed attack by the Pakistani Taliban, and there were no casualties. Tarar claimed the drone attacks “once again exposed direct linkages between the Afghan Taliban regime and terrorism in Pakistan”. Afghan Taliban soldiers look toward the Pakistani side on the Afghan side of the Torkham border crossing with Pakistan in Torkham, Afghanistan (Wahidullah Kakar/AP)Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan held separate phone calls with his Pakistani, Afghan, Qatari and Saudi counterparts on Friday to discuss the conflict, a Turkish official said, without providing details on the talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy. In October, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had facilitated talks between the sides. On Friday, Mr Mujahid said Afghanistan had “always emphasised a peaceful solution, and we still want to resolve the problem through dialogue”. In a statement, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres urged both sides to try to resolve their differences through diplomacy, and to protect civilians. Russia called for an immediate halt to the fighting and for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, Russian diplomat Zamir Kabulov told news agency Ria Novosti. Mr Kabulov, who is President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said that Moscow would consider mediating between the two countries if asked, according to Ria Novosti. Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to resolve their differences through dialogue during the holy month of Ramadan. He also said that Tehran was ready to assist in facilitating dialogue. Pakistani authorities said that dozens of Afghan refugees in the Torkham border area had been relocated to safer places. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in October 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging those in the country to leave of their own accord to avoid arrest and forcibly expelling others. Iran also began a crackdown on migrants at around the same time. Since then, millions have crossed the border into Afghanistan, including people who were born in Pakistan decades ago and had built lives and created businesses there. In 2025, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, the UN refugee agency has said, with nearly 80,000 having returned so far this year.