Pakistan’s military launched air and artillery strikes deep inside Afghanistan overnight and into early Saturday, killing more than 300 Afghan personnel amid escalating border fighting between the two sides, a government spokesman and officials said.
The two sides have targeted each other's military positions since Thursday night, when Afghanistan launched strikes in response to Pakistani attacks that Islamabad said hit seven training camps and hideouts of the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. The group is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan's Taliban.
More than 331 Afghan Taliban forces had been killed and over 500 others wounded during the ongoing military strikes in Afghanistan, according to Pakistan's Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, who said Pakistan also destroyed 102 Afghan posts, captured 22 others and destroyed 163 tanks and armored vehicles at 37 locations.
On Saturday, Pakistan's state-run media reported the country's air force carried out strikes targeting key military installations in various areas of eastern Afghanistan.
According to Pakistani authorities, hundreds of residents living near the northwestern Torkham border crossing have fled to safer areas. In recent days, Pakistan has also transported dozens of Afghan refugees who had been waiting at the Torkham crossing to return home to safer locations.
There was no immediate comment from Afghanistan's government on the Pakistani claims Saturday.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry on Saturday said Afghanistan attacked Pakistani military bases in Miranshah and Spin Wam overnight, destroying military installations and causing heavy casualties in response to the ongoing airstrikes by Pakistan.
In eastern Afghanistan, the Department of Information and Culture accused Pakistan of targeting civilian areas, destroying homes and killing at least 11 people. There was no immediate response from Pakistan, which has said it is targeting only military installations to avoid any civilian casualties.
Mullah Taj Mohammad Naqshbandi, an Afghan commissioner on Afghan side of the Torkham border, in a statement said Saturday that the "brave forces of the Islamic Emirate destroyed the Pakistani military regime's commissariat, military units, and three important security towers."
On Friday, the Afghan government said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed during its strikes and Afghan losses were far lower than Pakistan claimed.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Friday that the country's attacks on Pakistani military targets were meant as "a message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will respond to every evil act of Pakistan." He added that "Pakistan has never sought to resolve problems through dialogue."
The same day, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif wrote on X: "Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us." Pakistan has frequently accused Kabul of sheltering the TTP, allegations the group and Afghanistan's Taliban government deny.
Pakistan's army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, said Friday the Afghan government had only one choice: "either choose TTP or Pakistan."
Ejaz Ul Haq, an Afghan refugee stranded near the Torkham border with his family, said he could not return to Afghanistan because of the fighting. Many others were struggling to obtain food during the fasting month of Ramadan, he said.
Guftar, a Pakistani villager living near Torkham, urged the governments to reach a ceasefire, saying ordinary people are bearing the brunt of the conflict.
Tensions have been high since October, when dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants were killed in border clashes. A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting that month, but several rounds of peace talks in Türkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement. The two sides have occasionally traded fire since then, though the ceasefire had largely held until last week, when Pakistan struck what it described as TTP hideouts.
Since then, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China and several other countries are again attempting to defuse tensions by offering mediation.
Qatar's minister of state, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, spoke Friday with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an effort to de-escalate tensions, Qatar's Foreign Ministry said in a post on X.
