Pakistan Strikes Kabul, Kandahar as 'Open War' Erupts With Afghanistan

The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict entered dangerous new territory on Friday, February 27, as Pakistani jets struck Afghanistan's capital Kabul and several other major cities. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared the two countries are now at "open war," marking one of the most serious escalations between the neighboring nations in decades.

Significantly, this is the first time Pakistan has directly targeted Taliban government forces rather than militant groups allegedly sheltered by them. According to Reuters, it represents a stark rupture in ties between the two Islamic neighbors who were once close allies.

Pakistan Airstrikes on Kabul: What Happened

According to Al Jazeera, the first Pakistani strike was recorded at approximately 1:50 a.m. local time on Friday. Residents in Kabul described being woken by loud explosions, the sound of jets overhead, and ambulance sirens echoing through the streets. One Kabul resident told CNN she was terrified and could not sleep until 5 a.m., watching what she described as "bullet-like flames going up in the sky" from her apartment window.

Pakistan's military spokesman Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry confirmed at a press conference Friday that the armed forces had conducted strikes targeting military centers in Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia, Nangarhar, and Paktika. According to Bloomberg, the Pakistani military described the strikes as "swift and brutal" and confirmed the operation was still ongoing as of Friday afternoon.

Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar stated on X that the strikes had targeted Afghan Taliban defence targets. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif followed with a direct post on X: "Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you."

Pakistan also stated that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters attempted to launch drone attacks from inside Pakistan against targets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. According to Pakistan's information minister, anti-drone systems brought all the drones down with no loss of life or damage to property.

Pakistan vs Afghanistan Casualties: Both Sides Make Claims

Casualty figures from both sides remain disputed. Al Jazeera, CNN, and Reuters have all noted they cannot independently verify claims made by either government, given how remote and inaccessible much of the fighting area is.

According to Pakistan's military, 274 Afghan Taliban fighters were killed and 400 wounded. The military also claims to have destroyed 73 Taliban border posts and captured more than a dozen others. Pakistan acknowledges losing 12 of its own soldiers in the fighting.

According to Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 19 Pakistani military posts were seized by Afghan forces. Mujahid also stated that 13 civilians were killed in the Pakistani strikes, a figure echoed by the United Nations. He described the strikes as hitting a farmer's home in Jalalabad, killing most of the family, and a religious school for children in Paktika. Pakistan has not acknowledged any civilian casualties.

According to CNBC, a Kabul taxi driver named Tamim described the moment a strike hit what appeared to be a weapons depot near his home. He said the aircraft came, dropped two bombs and flew away, after which the ammunition inside the depot kept exploding on its own. His family ran down from the second floor in panic.

Why Pakistan and Afghanistan Are Fighting

This escalation did not happen in isolation. According to Al Jazeera, the immediate trigger for Friday's strikes was a large-scale Afghan Taliban offensive launched late Thursday night. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid described it as offensive operations against Pakistani military positions and installations along the Durand Line, the 2,611-kilometer border separating the two countries.

That Thursday offensive was itself a retaliation. On February 22, Pakistan had launched airstrikes in Nangarhar and Paktika provinces. According to Wikipedia's documented timeline of the 2026 Pakistani airstrikes, Islamabad described those strikes as intelligence-based, selective operations targeting camps of the TTP, also referred to by Pakistani authorities as Fitna al-Khawarij, along with Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP) hideouts.

The February 22 strikes followed weeks of deadly attacks inside Pakistan. According to Euronews, a suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad on February 6 killed 31 worshippers and was claimed by ISKP. Attacks on Pakistani military checkpoints in Bajaur and Bannu in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa followed shortly after. On February 11, Defence Minister Asif had publicly warned that Pakistan might take unilateral military action inside Afghanistan before Ramadan if the Taliban did not move against militant groups using Afghan soil to plan and carry out attacks in Pakistan.

Pakistan's core accusation is that the Taliban government is providing safe haven to TTP fighters. Kabul has consistently denied the charge and describes all Pakistani strikes as violations of Afghanistan's territorial integrity and international law.

Pakistan Afghanistan War 2026: International Response

According to Al Jazeera, Russia, China, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia are all working diplomatic channels to contain the escalating fighting. Iran, which shares borders with both countries, has also offered to mediate. Several rounds of negotiations had previously followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey after the October 2025 clashes, which killed more than 70 soldiers on both sides, but those efforts failed to produce a lasting agreement.

Former US Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad described the tit-for-tat attacks as a terrible dynamic that must stop. He called for a diplomatic agreement between the two countries ensuring that neither side would allow its territory to be used to threaten the security of the other.

According to crisis analysts at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), cited by Al Jazeera, 2025 was one of the most violent years in more than a decade, with over 1,000 violent incidents involving the Pakistani Taliban recorded across Pakistan. Analysts warned that without a serious Afghan crackdown on the TTP, further escalation was inevitable.

The Afghan Taliban has shown no sign of standing down. According to Reuters, state media out of Nangarhar shared an image described as a battalion of suicide bombers equipped with explosive vests and car bombs, reportedly prepared to strike major targets inside Pakistan.

As of Friday afternoon, Pakistan says the operation is continuing. The situation remains fluid and is developing by the hour.

This is a developing story and details may change as more information becomes available. Stay tuned for more updates!