Pakistan declares

Pakistan bombed Afghanistan’s main cities on Friday, including the capital Kabul, and Islamabad’s defense minister declared neighbors in “open war” after months of fighting. The dramatic statement came as Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers claimed to have carried out unprecedented airstrikes on multiple locations in Pakistan, including its capital Islamabad.

The Taliban-run Afghan Defense Ministry said on Friday that “the strikes were carried out in response to air raids carried out last night by Pakistani forces in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.” The Taliban said their attacks targeted Pakistani military bases, command centers and key strategic installations in multiple locations.

The Taliban did not say what weapons they used, but their alleged airstrike on Pakistani territory was unprecedented and marked a significant escalation in a long-simmering conflict between the two South Asian neighbors.

“We are aware of the recent escalation of tensions and the outbreak of fighting between the Taliban and Pakistan, and we continue to closely monitor the situation,” Don Brown, chargé d’affaires of the US diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement on Friday.

Journalists in Kabul and Kandahar heard explosions and planes flying overhead as Pakistan launched airstrikes on the Afghan capital and the Taliban authorities’ power base in the south. Pakistan’s latest operation came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night in retaliation for earlier airstrikes by Islamabad.

Wali Khan Ahmadi, 43, a doctor from Kabul, told News themezone that the Pakistani attacks in Kabul were like experiencing a horror movie. He said he was sleeping at home when “a sudden flash of blinding light illuminated my room around 2:13 a.m. The windows vibrated violently and the impact of the explosion nearly knocked me out of bed.”

He said he ran outside and “saw them: two missiles crossing the beautiful Kabul sky, then a big explosion and sparks of fire near the center of Kabul.”

Ahmadi described his fear and a “sense that life could change in an instant,” telling News themezone: “As a doctor, I know the horrors that can follow, but I felt helpless in that moment: just a man looking up at the sky, hoping to be safe.”

Relations between the neighbors have plummeted in recent months, with land border crossings virtually closed. since the deadly fighting of October which killed more than 70 people on both sides.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups carrying out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.

A series of deadly suicide bombings has rocked both Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months, including a Attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad which killed at least 40 people, and which was claimed by the regional affiliate of the terrorist group ISIS. The same group, ISIS-K or ISIS Khorasan, also claimed responsibility for a deadly suicide bombing at a Kabul restaurant last month.

“We will defend this nation together,” the Taliban administration’s Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said during a Friday prayer sermon, adding that the regime’s “door to dialogue remains open to the world and our neighbors. Stopping these actions does not oblige us to take action against you.”

Several rounds of negotiations followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Türkiye, but the efforts failed to produce a lasting agreement.

Both armies said they killed dozens of soldiers in the latest round of border violence, which followed multiple Pakistani attacks in Afghanistan and clashes along the border in recent months.

“Afghan Taliban defense targets were attacked in Kabul, Paktia (province) and Kandahar,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted on X, while Defense Minister Khawaja Asif declared a “full confrontation” with the Taliban government.

“Our patience has reached its limit. Now there is an open war between us and you,” he posted on the social media platform.

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country’s armed forces “have full capacity to crush any aggressive ambitions.”

An News journalist in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, where Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, said he heard planes flying overhead.

The Taliban government confirmed the Pakistani airstrikes, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid telling News themezone that 13 civilians, including women and children, were injured in attacks on the Torkham refugee camp near the border, where Afghan citizens expelled by Pakistan have sought refuge.

Mujahid claimed that Taliban attacks killed 55 Pakistani personnel, and that the bodies of 23 Pakistani soldiers were recovered from the border region, along with eight injured Pakistani security personnel who he claimed were captured. He said eight Taliban fighters were killed and 11 others wounded in the clashes.

Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister, said in a written statement shared with News themezone that his country’s attacks in Afghanistan had killed 133 Taliban fighters and wounded more than 200.

“Twenty-seven Afghan Taliban outposts have been destroyed and nine have been captured,” he said, adding that more than 80 tanks were also destroyed.

“Pakistan’s immediate and effective response to the aggression continues,” he warned.

News themezone could not independently verify the victim claims from either government.

The conflict between neighbors is far from being equal. Pakistan has one of the most powerful militaries in South Asia and maintains military and strategic relations with regional and Western powers, including the United States. Pakistan not only has at its disposal a formidable conventional army, but also a well-established air force and command structure.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government, on the other hand, remains largely unrecognized by the international community and therefore lacks formal diplomatic ties with major Western powers. Isolation severely limits Kabul’s ability to garner political support, and while the Taliban leads its force of guerrillas, many of them with years of battlefield experience, it lacks a conventional army or air force, and the regime does not control the country’s airspace.