Pakistan’s defense minister said his country will have “open war” with Afghanistan, as the neighboring nations carried out strikes in each others’ capital cities after months of escalating tension.
Khawaja Asif said that Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the United States and allied forces withdrew in 2021, but that its patience with the Taliban government had run out and that Pakistan’s forces would respond decisively to what he described as Afghan aggression, in a post on X on Thursday.
Pakistan carried out strikes in Kabul and Kandahar, the base of Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, as well as in the eastern border region of Paktia, according to officials in both nations. On Friday, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said it launched strikes against military targets in Islamabad and Abbottabad, following an earlier announcement of strikes on Pakistani border positions. Both sides claimed their strikes were retaliatory.
Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said early Friday that 133 members of the Taliban had been killed and more than 200 wounded in strikes on military targets in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban government, confirmed the strikes in a post on X, but claimed there had been no reported casualties.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett called for calm and the two nations to respect international law and civilian rights after the tensions “regrettably flowed into violence.”
“Immediate de-escalation is essential,” he said in a Friday post on X.
Earlier, Afghanistan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had carried out “retaliatory attacks” after the Pakistani military breached Afghan border positions.
It claimed 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and their bodies were taken to Afghanistan, with two bases and 19 posts captured, in attacks in Paktia, Khost, Nangahar and Konar, among other places. Thirteen civilians were injured in a missile attack and eight fighters were killed, the Afghan Defense Ministry said.
The number of casualties could not be independently verified by The Washington Post.
The escalation in conflict comes after Pakistan shut all major crossings along its roughly 1,600-mile border with Afghanistan in mid-October. The sides eventually agreed to a ceasefire, but crossings remain closed to trade in what amounts to the longest border shutdown in living memory, according to locals.
Pakistani officials say the main reason for the border closure is the Afghan government’s alleged harboring of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, a group that has intensified attacks in northwestern Pakistan since the U.S. withdrawal.
The Afghan Taliban have denied harboring members of the group.
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