The Afghanistan authorities late on Thursday mentioned it had captured 40 Pakistani navy outposts and killed a number of troopers in a large-scale border offensive, describing the operation as retaliation for latest Pakistani air strikes on Afghan territory, as reported by TOLOnews.Taliban authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned Afghan forces had inflicted vital losses through the clashes alongside the disputed Durand Line. “Several soldiers have been killed, and a number of them have been caught alive,” he wrote on X. He added that “the number of posts captured from the enemy has reached 15, multiple soldiers have been killed while some have also been taken alive.”
Afghanistan’s navy corps within the east reported that “heavy clashes” started on Thursday night time in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes earlier within the week, as reported by information company AP. A navy spokesman mentioned Afghan forces in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces had launched “heavy attacks on Pakistani outposts”. Wahidullah Mohammadi, spokesman for the navy in japanese Afghanistan, mentioned: “So far, there are no casualties on Afghan side.”Hamdullah Fitrat, the Taliban authorities’s deputy spokesman, confirmed that “15 outposts have been captured” by Afghan forces.Islamabad, nevertheless, accused Afghanistan of initiating the confrontation. Pakistan’s data ministry mentioned Afghan forces had “opened unprovoked fire on multiple locations” throughout the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, including the motion was “being met with immediate, and effective response”.
Trigger: Cross-border airstrikes
The newest escalation follows Pakistani navy strikes alongside the border with Afghanistan on Sunday. Pakistan’s navy mentioned it had killed at the very least 70 militants in these operations.Kabul rejected that declare, insisting that the air raids had as an alternative killed dozens of civilians, together with girls and kids.Afghanistan’s authorities spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned on X: “Last night, they bombed our civilian compatriots in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces, martyring and wounding dozens of people, including women and children.”Afghanistan’s defence ministry additionally mentioned that “dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children, were martyred and wounded” after airstrikes hit a college and residential properties in japanese provinces.Afghan media outlet Tolo News reported {that a} civilian home in Behsud district of Nangarhar province was focused, with 23 members of a household reportedly buried underneath rubble. The broadcaster additionally mentioned the Pakistani Air Force struck a non secular seminary in Bermal district of Paktika province and carried out a number of airstrikes in Khogyani district of Nangarhar.Pakistan confirmed that it had carried out cross-border strikes in Bermal and Argun districts of Paktika, in addition to in Khogyani, Bahsod and Ghani Khel districts of Nangarhar since Saturday.
Pakistan cites militant targets
Islamabad mentioned the operations had been geared toward militant teams it blames for a sequence of latest suicide assaults inside Pakistan.Geo News, citing Pakistan’s ministry of knowledge, reported that seven camps and hideouts of Fitna al Khwarij (a time period utilized by Pakistan for the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), its associates and Daesh Khorasan Province had been hit. The ministry described the motion as carried out “with precision and accuracy” in response to suicide assaults in Islamabad, Bajaur and Bannu throughout Ramadan.Pakistan’s state minister for inside, Talal Chaudhry, mentioned the nation had “conclusive evidence” that latest assaults — together with a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed 31 worshippers — had been carried out by militants performing on the path of Afghanistan-based management and handlers.The Pakistani authorities has repeatedly urged Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities to stop militant teams from utilizing Afghan soil to launch assaults, and has known as on the worldwide group to press Kabul to honour commitments underneath the Doha Agreement.
Rising tensions on either side
The cross-border strikes got here days after a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden car right into a safety publish in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing 11 troopers and a toddler. Authorities later mentioned the attacker was an Afghan nationwide.Another suicide bombing in Bannu killed two troopers, together with a lieutenant colonel.Following these incidents, Pakistan’s navy warned it might not “exercise any restraint” and would proceed operations towards these accountable “irrespective of their location”, signalling rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.Afghanistan has constantly denied allegations that armed teams are utilizing its territory to hold out assaults towards Pakistan.India additionally reacted to the state of affairs. Ministry of exterior affairs mentioned it “strongly condemns Pakistan’s airstrikes on Afghan territory that have resulted in civilian casualties, including women and children, during the holy month of Ramadan.”Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained strained in latest months, with earlier border clashes leading to casualties amongst troopers, civilians and suspected militants on either side. The newest exchanges now mark one of the severe escalations between the 2 neighbours in latest occasions.
