Another flashpoint is heating up on Iran’s eastern flank amid a bitter war with Israel and the United States. Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday it had targeted a Pakistani military center after Islamabad carried out new airstrikes inside Afghan territory on Thursday. It added that “significant human and material losses” had been inflicted on Pakistani military facilities.
Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan are rising An era in which West Asia is already in crisis. This is because of the war inside Iran and the surrounding region. This is raising concerns that another regional confrontation will occur right next door.
Taliban officials claimed on Friday that the Afghan air force attacked Pakistani facilities in Kohat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in response to an “invasion” by Islamabad. Pakistan had previously bombed sites inside Afghanistan late Thursday. They said it was related to terrorist activities.
Accompanying the Taliban’s statement, the 12-second video shows a drone cruising through the sky.
The exchange marks another dangerous spiral in tensions along the Durand Line, the disputed border between the two neighbors.
Why did the Taliban target Pakistani military centers?
According to the Taliban government, this airstrike was a direct ‘retaliation’ for the Pakistani airstrike carried out the night before.
Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the Afghan air force had targeted “strategic military centers and facilities owned by the Pakistan Army in the Kohat district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.”
“During the operation, the Kohat military fort was attacked,” Fitrat said. “War command centers and fort commander offices along the Durand Line were also targeted,” he added.
According to his statement, the airstrikes damaged Pakistan’s military facilities, bases and military quarters, causing “significant human and material losses.”
Pakistan attacked inside Afghanistan. Several civilians were killed.
The Taliban’s retaliation came after Pakistan carried out fresh airstrikes across Afghan territory.
According to a report by news agency AFP, Pakistani aircraft struck several regions of Afghanistan, including Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia and Paktika. Taliban officials said the Pakistani attack hit civilian homes and infrastructure, causing casualties.
The Taliban government said civilians were killed in shelling and shelling by Pakistani troops near the border.
Fitrat said four members of the same family – a man, a woman and two children – were killed in the village of Sadqo in Khost province. Three other children were also injured.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said earlier that Pakistan had also bombed a fuel depot owned by Afghan commercial airline Kam Air near Kandahar airport.
Mujahid said the depot supplied fuel to commercial airlines and United Nations aircraft. Taliban officials described the strike as a “brutal attack” and warned there would be no response.
The attack and civilian deaths bring to seven the reported deaths of civilians in Afghanistan since Tuesday in cross-border clashes with Pakistan, according to Taliban authorities.
Why do Pakistan and the Taliban continue to clash?
According to Pakistan, terrorism in Afghanistan remains a key conflict between the two neighbors.
Islamabad accuses the Taliban government of harboring terrorists who carry out attacks inside Pakistan. These groups include fighters linked to the Pakistani Taliban.
The Taliban government rejected the charges. They claim that terrorism inside Pakistan is an internal security problem for Islamabad.
This disagreement has sparked repeated air strikes, artillery exchanges and border skirmishes along the approximately 2,600 km Durand Line separating the two countries. The Taliban does not recognize the colonial-era border markings between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The latest escalation comes just a week after previous clashes between the two sides. Before the exchanges on Thursday and Friday, Pakistan attacked Afghanistan and the Taliban retaliated with drone strikes in the first week of March. The March 3 escalation included border clashes along the Durand Line and Pakistani airstrikes against Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Pakistani forces targeted ‘terrorism hotspots’ in Afghan provinces such as Nangarhar, Kunar, Khost, Paktia and Paktika.
As the situation intensified, hostilities continued until early March, but no large-scale airstrikes or cross-border attacks were recorded from March 4 to March 11. During a brief lull, peace talks were underway between Afghanistan and Pakistan, mediated by Turkiye, Russia, and China.
However, the vicious cycle of strikes and counterattacks continued.
At a time when West Asia is already at war, renewed hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan are raising concerns that another conflict zone could arise near Iran. For now, both sides seem locked into a familiar pattern. It is a matter of condemnation, strikes and retaliation.
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