New Delhi: Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared “open war” against Afghanistan Friday, with tensions escalating overnight as Islamabad launched airstrikes and bombed cities across the border.
The escalation follows a sequence of tit-for-tat strikes. Pakistan bombed the Afghan cities of Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops along the disputed Durand Line. On Thursday, Taliban claimed to have captured a Pakistani border post in response to Islamabad’s earlier airstrikes this week.
“Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is an open war against us and you (Pakistan and Afghanistan). Now it will be ‘Dama Dam Mast Qulandar’,” Asif posted on X, accusing the Taliban dispensation in Kabul of exporting terrorism into Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed that the airstrikes targeted military installations in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Its Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi described the latest strikes as a “befitting response” to what he termed “open aggression” by Taliban forces against Pakistani border personnel.
Taliban’s ‘large-scale’ operation
On Thursday night, the Taliban said it had launched “large-scale offensive operations” across the Durand Line.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said on X: “In response to repeated provocations and violations by Pakistani military circles, large-scale offensive operations have been launched against Pakistani military positions and installations along the Durand Line.”
The Afghan Ministry of National Defence claimed 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 19 military posts captured in Thursday’s operation. The Taliban also claimed that several Pakistani soldiers had been “caught alive” — a claim Islamabad has denied.
Hours later, reports of airstrikes in Afghan cities emerged. Videos shared online by Pakistani security officials showed flashes of light from firing along the border and the sound of heavy artillery. A video of strikes on Kabul showed thick plumes of black smoke rising from two sites and a massive blaze in part of the capital, Reuters reported.
Another video showed a building on fire, which officials said was a Taliban headquarters in Paktia province.
“Pakistani counter-strikes against targets in Afghanistan continue,” Pakistani government spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi said in a post on X.
Zaidi said 133 Afghan Taliban fighters were killed and more than 200 wounded, with 27 posts destroyed and nine captured.
Figures of casualties from both sides could not be confirmed.
The conflict
Kabul has framed its military action as a defence of Afghan sovereignty against repeated Pakistani violations that, it says, have caused civilian casualties including women and children. The UN Mission in Afghanistan had said that Pakistani’s strikes on Nangarhar and Paktika earlier in the week killed at least 13 civilians.
The Durand Line has been a persistent flashpoint, with Kabul refusing to recognise it as an international border. Relations between the two neighbours deteriorated sharply after October 2025, when a border clash killed dozens on both sides. Islamabad has repeatedly accused the Taliban of harbouring and spreading militancy; the Taliban dismisses the charge.
Mediation efforts in Qatar and Turkey have so far failed to stabilise the frontier, which remains subject to frequent closures and cross-border fire.