Tensions along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan surged on Sunday after a deadly overnight clash between the countries’ militaries, with both sides exchanging heavy fire in one of the sharpest escalations of violence between the neighbors in years.
Afghan officials said on Sunday that their security forces had targeted Pakistani military outposts along the border in what they described as “retaliatory operations,” following what Kabul said were Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan last week. At least 23 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 29 others were injured on Saturday, according to Pakistan’s military. The Taliban government said nine Afghan soldiers had died and at least 16 others had been injured.
The overnight fighting raised concerns that the violence could spill into a broader conflict between the two countries, whose governments have gradually grown hostile to each other since the Taliban reclaimed power in Afghanistan in 2021.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government’s chief spokesman, told reporters on Sunday that the fighting had stopped at midnight after Qatar and Saudi Arabia urged restraint. He warned Pakistan that any violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty would prompt retaliation.
The Afghan attack overnight included heavy fire and raids within Pakistan, the Pakistani military said in a statement on Sunday. It said it responded with heavy artillery, airstrikes and raids within Afghanistan. Both sides also claimed dozens of victims, but none of their claims could be independently verified because access to the border region remains severely restricted.
The Afghan offensive was a response to attacks on Wednesday in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and at a market near the border, which the Taliban government blamed on Pakistan.
Pakistan said on Friday that it had conducted “a series of retribution operations” against Pakistani militants, but it did not mention Afghanistan directly. Nor did Pakistan claim responsibility for the explosions on Thursday in Kabul and at the border market.
Without addressing the specifics of the most recent violence, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of Pakistan on Sunday praised his country’s armed forces for what he described as a “strong and effective response” to recent Afghan provocations along the border, saying the military had “destroyed several of their border posts, forcing a retreat.”
The militaries of both nations have frequently clashed along their shared border, a nearly 1,600-mile-long line that snakes along mountainous areas.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused the Taliban government of providing a haven to the banned group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, also known as the T.T.P. or Pakistani Taliban, whose attacks have killed hundreds of Pakistani security forces in recent years. It has also accused its archnemesis, India, of supporting the T.T.P.
The T.T.P. leadership has received financial support from the Afghan government, and its militants have trained freely in Afghanistan, according to Pakistani military officials and independent and United Nations experts. The Taliban in Afghanistan deny backing the Pakistani group.
The Afghan and Pakistani governments have tried to mend the relationship in recent years, despite sporadic clashes and ongoing points of diplomatic tension. The countries’ top diplomats met in August with their Chinese counterpart, but Pakistan has not recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate authority.
Still, there are close ties between both nations. Pakistan is Afghanistan’s top export partner, and it hosts millions of Afghans who fled insecurity and unemployment over the past decades.
Major border crossings between the two countries have been closed since the overnight clashes, according to Pakistani and Afghan officials. In recent months, tens of thousands of Afghans living in Pakistan have crossed back into Afghanistan amid a wave of expulsions ordered by the Pakistani government.
The clash on Saturday only lasted for a few hours, possibly because both countries may be wary of escalating tensions further, said Adam Weinstein, a Afghanistan and Pakistan analyst at the Quincy Institute, a research center in Washington.
“Pakistan doesn’t yet want to engage in some kind of regime change, but the Taliban know that they would be outgunned by the Pakistanis if they pushed the fighting further,” Mr. Weinstein said.
Pakistan can carry out airstrikes across most of Afghanistan, but the Taliban are more limited to cross-border artillery and the potential use of the T.T.P. militants to add pressure inside Pakistan, he added.
On Saturday, the T.T.P. claimed responsibility for a series of attacks across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a Pakistani province bordering Afghanistan, that killed several security personnel and civilians, including in a bombing near a police training facility.
Residents in border districts on both sides said in telephone interviews that they witnessed intense overnight clashes that raged for several hours.
“The fighting went on for hours without pause,” said Shabbir Khan, a resident of Kurram, a Pakistani border district, describing the sound of heavy weapons echoing through the mountains.
Aziz Sayar, a resident of the Sawkai district in Afghanistan’s Kunar Province, near the border of Pakistan, said the gunfire began around 9 p.m. and continued for over three hours.
“Our children screamed in fear as bullets echoed through the night,” he said.
Mujib Mashal contributed reporting.
Elian Peltier is an international correspondent for The Times, covering Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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