Pakistan strikes Kabul hours after Afghanistan assault on border troops

[ad_1] Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two different Afghan provinces early Friday, Afghanistan’s authorities spokesperson stated, hours after Afghanistan launched a cross-border assault on Pakistan within the latest escalation of violence between the unstable neighbours that made a Qatar-mediated ceasefire seem more and more shaky.

A minimum of three explosions had been heard in Kabul, however there was no rapid info on the precise location of the strikes within the Afghan capital, or of any potential casualties.

Pakistan’s inside minister Mohsin Naqvi stated on Friday that the strikes on Afghanistan had been a “befitting response”.

“Pakistan’s armed forces have given a befitting response to the Afghan Taliban’s open aggression,” stated Naqvi, hours after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops in what the Taliban authorities stated was retaliation for earlier lethal airstrikes.

Authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated Pakistan additionally carried out airstrikes in Kandahar to the south and within the south-eastern province of Paktian.

Afghanistan stated its navy launched its assault throughout the border into Pakistan late on Thursday in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday , and claimed to have captured greater than a dozen Pakistani military posts.

Pakistan’s authorities, which had described final Sunday’s airstrikes as an assault on militants harboured within the space, stated Thursday’s Afghan assault was unprovoked, and dismissed claims that military posts had been captured.

The 2 nations’ 2,611km lengthy border is called the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has not formally recognised.

Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry stated 55 Pakistani troopers had been killed within the assault on Thursday, together with some whose our bodies had been taken into Afghanistan, whereas “a number of others had been captured alive.” It put its personal casualties at eight killed and one other 11 wounded. The ministry stated it had destroyed 19 Pakistani military posts and two bases, and that the combating had ended at midnight, about 4 hours after the beginning of the assault.

Pakistan’s info minister Attaullah Tarar, nonetheless, stated the variety of Pakistani troopers killed stood at two, with three others wounded. He stated 36 Afghan fighters had been reported killed.

Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesperson for Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani troopers had been captured.

Afghan authorities had been evacuating a refugee camp close to the Torkham border crossing after a number of refugees had been wounded, stated Qureshi Badlon, head of Torkham’s Info and Public Consciousness Board. The Protection Ministry stated 13 civilians had been wounded in a missile strike on the camp, together with ladies and kids.

On the Pakistani aspect of the border, native police stated residents had been additionally evacuating to safer areas, whereas some Afghan refugees who had been ready to cross again into Afghanistan had been additionally moved to safe areas. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown on migrants in October 2023 and has expelled lots of of 1000's of individuals.

Pakistani police stated mortars fired from Afghanistan had landed in close by villages, however there have been no studies of civilian casualties.

“Pakistan will take all crucial measures to make sure its territorial integrity and the protection and safety of its residents,” Pakistan’s info ministry stated in a submit on X.

Stress has been excessive between the 2 neighbours for months, with lethal border clashes in October killing dozens of troopers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence adopted explosions in Kabul that Afghan officers blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, on the time, carried out strikes deep inside Afghanistan to focus on militant hideouts.

A Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the 2 nations has largely held, however the two sides have nonetheless often traded fireplace throughout the border. A number of rounds of peace talks in November failed to provide a proper settlement.