ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's military, backed by artillery and air power, struck more military installations deep inside Afghanistan overnight and into early Saturday, after Pakistan said it was in "open war" with its eastern neighbor.
Pakistan claimed more than 300 Afghan forces had been killed since fighting erupted Thursday night during a broad Afghan cross-border attack into Pakistan. Afghanistan rejected the figures as false. The casualty figures provided by either side could not be independently confirmed.
Pakistani and Afghan forces have targeted each other's military positions since Thursday night, when Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack in response to Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan last Sunday. Pakistan said it was targeting the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. Afghanistan, however, said only civilians were killed in Sunday's airstrike.
After the Afghan attack, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared Friday: "Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us."
Continued fighting
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Saturday that more than 331 Afghan forces had been killed and over 500 others wounded during the ongoing military strikes in Afghanistan. Pakistan destroyed 102 Afghan posts, captured 22 others and destroyed 163 tanks and armored vehicles at 37 locations, he said.
The Afghan government's deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said the claim of hundreds of Afghan forces killed and wounded “is untrue and we reject it.” On Friday night, he said 19 civilians were killed, while another three died and seven were wounded Saturday morning when Pakistan bombed a refugee camp in the southern province of Kandahar.
On Friday, Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said 13 Afghan forces were killed and 22 wounded. He also said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed. Pakistan put its own military figures at 12 killed, 27 wounded and one soldier missing in action.
Pakistan’s state-run media reported the country’s air force carried out strikes targeting key military installations in various areas of eastern Afghanistan.
According to Pakistani authorities, hundreds of residents living near the northwestern Torkham border crossing had fled. In recent days, Pakistan has also transported dozens of Afghan refugees who had been waiting at Torkham to return home to safety.
Ejaz Ul Haq, an Afghan refugee stranded near the Torkham border with his family, said he could not return to Afghanistan because of the fighting. Many others were struggling to obtain food during the fasting month of Ramadan, he said.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry on Saturday said Afghanistan attacked Pakistani military bases in Miranshah and Spin Wam overnight, destroying military installations and causing heavy casualties in response to the ongoing airstrikes by Pakistan.
Afghanistan says Pakistan targeting civilian areas
In eastern Afghanistan, the Department of Information and Culture accused Pakistan of targeting civilian areas, destroying homes and killing at least 11 people. There was no immediate response from Pakistan, which has said it is targeting only military installations.
Mullah Taj Mohammad Naqshbandi, an Afghan commissioner on Afghan side of the Torkham border, said in a statement Saturday that the “brave forces of the Islamic Emirate destroyed the Pakistani military regime’s commissariat, military units, and three important security towers.”
On Friday, the Afghan government said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed during its strikes and Afghan losses were far lower than Pakistan claimed.
Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesman, said Friday that the country's attacks on Pakistani military targets were meant as “a message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will respond to every evil act of Pakistan.” He added that “Pakistan has never sought to resolve problems through dialogue.”
Pakistan has frequently accused Kabul of sheltering the TTP, allegations the group and Afghanistan’s Taliban government deny.
Pakistan's army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Friday the Afghan government had only one choice: "either choose TTP or Pakistan."
Tension high for months
Tensions have been high since October, when dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants were killed in border clashes. A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting that month, but several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to produce a lasting agreement. The two sides have occasionally traded fire since then, though the ceasefire had largely held until last week, when Pakistan struck what it described as TTP hideouts.
Since then, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China and several other countries are again attempting to defuse tensions by offering mediation.
Qatar’s minister of state, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, spoke Friday with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to de-escalate tensions, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said in a post on X.
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Abdul Qahar Afghan reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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