Afghanistan launches military strikes on Pakistan in retaliation for earlier airstrikes

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s military launched an attack on Pakistan Thursday to retaliate for Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas earlier in the week, claiming to have captured more than a dozen Pakistani army posts in the latest escalation of violence between the volatile neighbors.

Pakistan’s government, which had described Sunday’s airstrikes as an attack on militants harbored in the area, confirmed clashes were taking place Thursday along the border but dismissed claims that army posts had been captured. It called Afghanistan’s attack unprovoked.

“In response to the repeated rebellions and insurrections of the Pakistani military, large-scale offensive operations were launched against Pakistani military bases and military installations along the Durand Line,” Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a post on X Thursday night. Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said the retaliatory attacks were occurring along the border in five provinces.

The two countries’ 2,611-kilometer (1,622-mile) long border is known as the Durand Line, which Afghanistan has not formally recognized.

The two sides reported widely differing casualty figures.

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Afghanistan’s deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat posted on X that “up to 55” Pakistani soldiers had been killed, with the bodies of 23 taken into Afghanistan, while an undisclosed number of soldiers had been captured.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar disputed the claim, saying two Pakistani soldiers had been killed and three others wounded. He said 36 Afghan fighters had been reported killed. In a post on X, he said Pakistan was giving a “strong and effective response” to what he called unprovoked firing from Afghanistan, and would continue to do so.

Mosharraf Ali Zaidi, spokesman for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, denied that any Pakistani soldiers had been captured.

Fighting also broke out in a separate part of the border, with both sides reporting exchanges of fire in the Torkham border area.

Afghan authorities were evacuating a refugee camp near the Torkham border crossing after several refugees were wounded, said Qureshi Badlon, head of Torkham’s Information and Public Awareness Board. On the Pakistani side of the border, local police said residents were also evacuating to safer areas, while some Afghan refugees who had been waiting to cross back into Afghanistan were also moved to secure locations. Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown on migrants in Oct. 2023 and has expelled hundreds of thousands of people.

Pakistani police said mortars fired from Afghanistan had landed in nearby villages, but there were no reports of civilian casualties.

“Pakistan will take all necessary measures to ensure its territorial integrity and the safety and security of its citizens,” Pakistan’s Information Ministry said in a post on X.

Afghanistan’s military released video footage of military vehicles moving at night, and the sound of heavy gunfire. The video could not be independently verified.

Tension has been high between the two neighbors for months, with deadly border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. The violence followed explosions in Kabul that Afghan officials blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad, at the time, conducted strikes deep inside Afghanistan to target militant hideouts.

A Qatari-mediated ceasefire between the two countries has largely held, but the two sides have still occasionally traded fire across the border. Several rounds of peace talks in November failed to produce a formal agreement.

On Sunday, Pakistan’s military carried out strikes along the border with Afghanistan, saying it had killed at least 70 militants.

Afghanistan rejected the claim, saying dozens of civilians had been killed, including women and children. The Defense Ministry said “various civilian areas” in eastern Afghanistan had been hit, including a religious madrassa and several homes. The ministry said the strikes were a violation of Afghanistan’s airspace and sovereignty.

Hours before Thursday’s border clashes erupted, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi defended the military’s Sunday strikes, saying they were on training camps of the Pakistani Taliban along the Afghan border.

At a weekly news conference in Islamabad, he said those “precision strikes were carried out” in response to recent militant attacks in Pakistan. Andrabi said Pakistan “remains cognizant of the threats that emanate from Afghanistan.”

He said attacks inside Pakistan, which he blamed on the Pakistani Taliban, have increased over the past year.

“We have nothing against the people of Afghanistan,” Andrabi said.

Militant violence has surged in Pakistan in recent years, much of which Pakistan blames on the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and outlawed Baloch separatist groups. The TTP is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban. Islamabad accuses the TTP of operating from inside Afghanistan, a charge both the group and Kabul deny.

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Ahmed contributed from Islamabad, Pakistan. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan and Elena Becatoros in Athens, Greece also contributed.

Abdul Qahar Afghan And Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press