The tension between Pakistan and Afghanistan has crossed a red line. The Pakistani Government confirmed this Friday that it bombed Kabul during the early hours of the morning and announced that it was entering into an “open war” with its neighboring country, in what is already the most serious episode between the two since the Taliban regained power in August 2021.
The prime minister’s spokesman for foreign media, Mosharraf Zaidi, detailed that the attacks reached “military objectives” not only in Kabul, but also in Paktia and Kandahar. According to Islamabad, the bombings left 133 Taliban dead and more than 200 wounded, in addition to the destruction of 27 Afghan posts and the capture of another nine.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif was even more forceful on the social network Afghanistan.
Kabul confirms attacks and responds
The main Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahidconfirmed the bombings on the Afghan capital and other areas of the country, although he assured that no victims were reported. “The cowardly Pakistani army has carried out bombings in some areas of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia“, he also stated in X.
Mujahid He added that Afghan forces carried out “major retaliation operations” against Pakistani military positions in Kandahar and Helmand.
Hostilities are especially concentrated on the so-called Durand Line, the border that separates both countries, where intense night fighting has been recorded since Thursday. According to the Taliban version, their offensive left 55 Pakistani soldiers dead and allowed them to capture two bases and 19 border posts.
The origin of climbing
The current clash is the culmination of a series of bombings carried out by Pakistan last week, which left at least 17 dead. Kabul then denounced that the victims were civilians, while Islamabad defended that it was an operation against insurgents of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an armed group that, according to Pakistan, operates from Afghan territory.
Islamabad repeatedly accuses the Taliban regime of offering refuge to terrorist groups that attack Pakistani soil. The Taliban reject these accusations and, in turn, denounce violations of their sovereignty.
The minister Asif justified the offensive by pointing out that Pakistan had tried to resolve the crisis through diplomatic channels, even with the mediation of third countries, but that the Taliban “have become a representative of India”, an accusation that adds a regional component to the conflict.
A conflict with regional risk
Pakistan is going through an uptick in internal violence, especially in border areas with Afghanistanwhere armed attacks have increased since the Taliban returned to power. The border, historically unstable, is now once again becoming a high-risk focus.
With bombings in the Afghan capital, declarations of open war and death tolls that both parties inflate according to their own balance sheets, The confrontation threatens to overwhelm the fragile regional balance and open a new front of instability in Central Asia.
