Afghanistan-Pakistan border clashes: Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan: 15 outposts captured, 40 soldiers killed as Taliban launch major offensive | World news & more related news here

Afghanistan’s military has retaliated with strikes against Pakistan following recent Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan soil, which Kabul says killed dozens of civilians. Pakistan stated that its operations were targeting militant groups responsible for recent attacks within its borders. This escalation highlights the deepening tensions between the two neighboring nations.

Afghanistan’s government said late Thursday that it had captured 15 Pakistani military posts and killed 40 Pakistani soldiers in a large-scale border offensive, describing the operation as retaliation for recent Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan territory, TOLOnews reported. Hours after the attack, Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes against Kabul.Strong explosion rocks Kabul after Pakistan launches major attack on Afghanistan – Follow live updatesTaliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Afghan forces had inflicted significant losses during clashes along the disputed Durand Line. “Several soldiers have been killed and several of them have been captured alive,” he wrote in X. He added that “the number of positions captured from the enemy has reached 15, several soldiers have been killed and some have also been captured alive.”

Afghanistan’s military in the east reported that “heavy clashes” began Thursday night in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes earlier in the week, the AP news agency reported. A military spokesman said Afghan forces in Nangarhar and Kunar provinces had launched “heavy attacks on Pakistani outposts.” Wahidullah Mohammadi, army spokesman in eastern Afghanistan, said: “So far, there are no casualties on the Afghan side.”Hamdullah Fitrat, deputy spokesman for the Taliban government, confirmed that Afghan forces “have captured 15 outposts.”Islamabad, however, accused Afghanistan of starting the standoff. Pakistan’s Information Ministry said Afghan forces had “opened unprovoked fire at multiple locations” across the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, adding that the action “received an immediate and effective response.”

Trigger: cross-border airstrikes

The latest escalation follows Pakistani military attacks along the border with Afghanistan on Sunday. Pakistan’s military said it had killed at least 70 militants in those operations.Kabul rejected that claim, insisting that airstrikes had killed dozens of civilians, including women and children.Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said onAfghanistan’s Defense Ministry also said that “dozens of innocent civilians, including women and children, were martyred and injured” after airstrikes hit a school and residential homes in the eastern provinces.Afghan media outlet Tolo News reported that a civilian house in the Behsud district of Nangarhar province was attacked and 23 members of a family were reportedly buried under the rubble. The broadcaster also said that the Pakistan Air Force attacked a religious seminary in the Bermal district of Paktika province and carried out multiple airstrikes in the Khogyani district of Nangarhar.Pakistan confirmed that it had carried out cross-border attacks in Bermal and Argun districts of Paktika, as well as Khogyani, Bahsod and Ghani Khel districts of Nangarhar since Saturday.

Pakistan cites militant targets

Islamabad said the operations targeted militant groups it blames for a series of recent suicide attacks inside Pakistan.Geo News, citing Pakistan’s Ministry of Information, reported that seven camps and hideouts of Fitna al Khwarij (a term used by Pakistan to refer to the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan), its affiliates and Daesh Khorasan province were attacked. The ministry described the action as carried out “with precision and accuracy” in response to suicide attacks in Islamabad, Bajaur and Bannu during Ramadan.Pakistan’s Minister of State for the Interior, Talal Chaudhry, said the country had “conclusive evidence” that recent attacks – including a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed 31 worshipers – were carried out by militants acting under the direction of leaders and supervisors based in Afghanistan.The Pakistani government has repeatedly urged Taliban authorities in Afghanistan to prevent militant groups from using Afghan soil to launch attacks and has called on the international community to pressure Kabul to live up to commitments set out in the Doha Agreement.

Rising tensions on both sides

The cross-border attacks came days after a suicide bomber crashed an explosives-laden vehicle into a security post in Bajaur district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, killing 11 soldiers and a child. Authorities later said the attacker was an Afghan national.Another suicide bomb attack in Bannu killed two soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel.Following those incidents, Pakistan’s military warned that it would not “exercise any restraint” and would continue operations against those responsible “regardless of their location,” indicating rising tensions between Islamabad and Kabul.Afghanistan has consistently denied accusations that armed groups are using its territory to carry out attacks against Pakistan.India also reacted to the situation. The Ministry of External Affairs said 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 tense in recent months, with previous border clashes resulting in casualties among soldiers, civilians and suspected militants on both sides. The latest exchanges now mark one of the most serious escalations between the two neighbors in recent times.