Pakistan military showed no slowing down in their relentless bombardment of targets inside Afghanistan destroying many more posts and camps belonging to Afghan Taliban regime on Saturday.
Pressing ahead with its Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) fighter planes bombed major cities in Afghanistan as the country had declared a state of “war” with its neighbour, drawing diplomatic support from Washington but a chorus of concern from others in the international community.
Pakistan Armed Forces, which launched the air strikes to retaliate for a cross-border Afghan offensive on Thursday night, said that nearly three dozen locations across Afghanistan had been “subjected to aerial targeting.”
Giving an update of the mounting Afghan losses, Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar said the number of Taliban fatalities has risen to 331 with over 500 injured.
The minister said the Pakistan military has destroyed 104 Afghan checkposts while it captured 22 others. As many as 163 tanks and armoured vehicles were also destroyed in air strikes, he added.
In a post on X platform on Saturday morning, Tarar said Pakistan military has effectively targeted 37 locations across Afghanistan with air strikes.
Security sources said Pakistani soldiers captured New Afghan Post 8 and Delta post in Zauba Sector and then blew them up, and inflicted heavy damage to the posts in Khyber, Naushki, top Jirga Thana post, Omari Camp and Afghan Taliban’s Kandkasi base.
Pakistan military also destroyed Afghan Taliban’s Military Aryana Complex, police headquarters, Dabgai Checkpost and Zakirkhail post.
Two loud explosions rocked Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday morning, an AFP journalist said, a day after Pakistani air strikes hit other Afghan cities.
The AFP journalist heard a jet overhead before blasts from the direction of the airport in Jalalabad, the capital of Nangarhar province, which sits on the road between Kabul and the Pakistani border.
Security sources said Pakistan air strikes have effectively destroyed Afghan army’s headquarters in Qandahar. Afghan army’s brigadier headquarters in Nangarhar province was also destroyed, the security sources said.
Pakistan Army has also foiled several attempts by terrorists to infiltrate Pakistan in Qilla Saifullah, Ghulam Khan, Azam Warsak and Miranshah sectors, killing a number of militants.
In response to the sharp surge in hostilities, Britain, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross called for immediate de-escalation while diplomats in China, Saudi Arabia and Qatar began efforts to calm the tensions.
The United States for its part “expressed support for Pakistan’s right to defend itself against Taliban attacks,” Allison Hooker, the under secretary of state for political affairs, wrote on X after talks with a Pakistani counterpart.
The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 and included air strikes on their southern power base, Kandahar, as well as the Afghan capital.
It was launched after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night.
A Pakistan government spokesman said 297 Afghan Taliban and militants had been killed. Islamabad earlier said 12 of its soldiers had been martyred.
Near the key Torkham border crossing, an AFP journalist heard shelling on Friday morning, and a camp accommodating Afghans who had returned from Pakistan was hit by the fighting overnight.
“Children, women, and old people were running,” Gander Khan, a 65-year-old man, told AFP in front of rows of tents at the Omari camp.
Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.
Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared an “all-out confrontation” with the Taliban government, posting on X: “Now it is open war between us and you.”
Taliban government spokesman Mujahid said Afghanistan wanted “dialogue” to resolve the conflict. “We have repeatedly emphasised a peaceful solution, and still want the problem to be resolved through dialogue,” Mujahid told a news conference, adding: “Right now, Pakistani planes, reconnaissance aircraft, are flying over Afghanistan’s airspace.”
The strikes mark a “significant and dangerous escalation from earlier clashes”, South Asia expert Michael Kugelman said on X.
“Pakistan appears to have expanded its targeting beyond TTP to the Taliban regime itself,” he said.
Several rounds of negotiations between Islamabad and Kabul followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.
