Pakistan strikes Kabul and border provinces as clashes with Afghanistan intensify
Kabul— Pakistan carried out overnight strikes on Kabul and several Afghan border provinces, Afghan authorities said on Friday, reporting that at least four people were killed and 15 wounded in bombardments that hit residential areas in the capital amid escalating tensions between the two countries.
A Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Pakistan conducted the strikes overnight but said the targets were fighters belonging to the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group Islamabad accuses of carrying out attacks inside Pakistan.
Khalil Zadran, spokesman for Kabul police, said the bombardment struck homes in the Afghan capital, leaving four people dead and 15 injured. Women and children were among the victims, he said.
The strikes occurred as hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan have intensified along their shared frontier, with both sides accusing each other of escalating violence.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistani strikes also targeted the southern province of Kandahar Province and the eastern provinces of Paktia Province and Paktika Province, all of which lie near the border with Pakistan.
In Kandahar, air strikes hit a fuel depot used by Kam Air near the city’s airport. The company supplies fuel to civilian airlines as well as aircraft operated by the United Nations, according to Afghan officials.
Pakistan has said its operations target militant groups and insists that its military has not killed civilians during the campaign. Casualty figures reported by both sides have been difficult to verify independently.
Tensions between the two neighbours have escalated sharply since late February.According to Afghan authorities, the latest clashes follow an offensive launched by Afghanistan on Feb.
26 along the border in response to earlier Pakistani air strikes targeting the TTP.Pakistan subsequently declared what it described as “open war” against Taliban authorities and carried out strikes in Kabul on Feb. 27.
Cross-border fighting has since intensified, including artillery and mortar exchanges in eastern Afghanistan. Afghan officials said four members of the same family, including two children, were killed in recent shelling in Khost Province.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that Pakistani military operations between Feb. 26 and March 5 had killed 56 civilians in Afghanistan, including 24 children.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the violence has forced about 115,000 people to leave their homes.Clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces have also disrupted trade and forced residents near the frontier to flee their communities in recent weeks.
