Pakistan in ‘Open War’ With Afghanistan After Air Strikes, Defense Minister Says

Pakistan bombed Taliban regime targets in Afghanistan on Feb. 27, with Islamabad’s defense minister describing the situation as “open war.”

The strikes hit Afghanistan’s capital of Kabul and city of Kandahar, where Taliban leaders are based. It was the first time Pakistan had attacked the Taliban rather than terrorists allegedly backed by them.

The Taliban said it launched an attack across the border into Pakistan late on Feb. 26 in retaliation for Pakistani air strikes on Afghan border areas on Feb. 22.

Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said in a Feb. 27 post on X that the Taliban had turned Afghanistan into a colony of India following the departure of NATO forces.

“[The Taliban] gathered terrorists from all over the world in Afghanistan and started exporting terrorism,” he said. “They deprived their people of basic human rights. Our patience has run out. Now we will have an open war with [Afghanistan].”

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that Pakistani forces had carried out air strikes.

“The cowardly Pakistani military has carried out airstrikes in certain areas of Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia; fortunately, there have been no reported casualties,” he wrote in a Feb. 27 post on X.

Pakistani government spokesperson Mosharraf Zaidi said in a post on X that 133 Afghan Taliban fighters had been killed and that more than 200 had been wounded.

“Two Corps [headquarters], three Brigade Headquarters, two ammunition depots, one logistics base, three battalion headquarters, two sector headquarters and more than eighty (80) tanks, artillery, and armed personnel carriers have been destroyed,” he said.

Mujahid said that in the earlier clashes between the two countries, 55 Pakistani soldiers and eight Taliban fighters were killed, while 11 Taliban fighters and 13 civilians were injured in Nangarhar Province.

The Epoch Times has not been able to independently verify these figures.

International Response

Pakistani and Saudi Arabian foreign ministers spoke on Feb. 27 to discuss reducing tensions in the region, according to Saudi state-owned media outlet Al Arabiya, but did not say whether or not Riyadh would be involved in cease-fire negotiations.

Russia is the only nation to formally recognize the Taliban as the country’s legitimate government. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called for an end to hostilities.

“We are concerned about the sharp escalation of armed clashes between the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, involving regular army units, aircraft, and heavy weapons,” she said, according to Moscow state media outlet TASS.

“Both sides have suffered casualties, including civilians. We call on our friends Afghanistan and Pakistan to refrain from dangerous confrontation and return to the negotiating table to resolve all differences through political and diplomatic means.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged both countries to protect civilians as required under international law and “to continue to seek to resolve any differences through diplomacy,” U.N. spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said.

India condemned Islamabad and expressed its support for Kabul, with Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Shri Randhir Jaiswal describing the situation in a Feb. 22 post on X as “another attempt by Pakistan to externalise its internal failures.”

Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.