Pakistan bombs Kabul in ‘open war’ on Afghanistan’s Taliban government

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan, including the capital Kabul, on Feb 27, with Islamabad’s Defence Minister declaring the neighbours at “open war” following months of tit-for-tat clashes.

AFP journalists in Kabul and Kandahar heard blasts and jets overhead until dawn.

The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of the Afghan capital and its first air strikes on the southern power base of the Taliban authorities since they returned to power in 2021.

Near the key Torkham border crossing between the two countries, an AFP journalist heard shelling on the morning of Feb 27, and a camp accommodating Afghans returning from Pakistan was hit by the fighting overnight.

“Children, women, and old people were running,” 65-year-old returnee Gander Khan told AFP in front of rows of tents at the Omari camp.

Pakistan’s latest operation came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on the night of Feb 26 in retaliation for earlier air strikes by Islamabad.

Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since deadly fighting in October 2025 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 in Kabul in 2021.

Pakistan’s 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.”

Delicate ceasefire broken

The overnight 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 followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.

After repeated breaches of the initial truce, Saudi Arabia intervened in February, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October 2025.

Iran, which shares an eastern border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, on Feb 27 offered to help “facilitate dialogue”, while Saudi’s Foreign Minister spoke with his Pakistani counterpart and China said it was “working with” both countries.

China called on Feb 27 for a ceasefire between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan is one of China’s closest partners in the region, but Beijing also calls itself a “friendly neighbour” of Afghanistan.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said China was “deeply concerned about the escalation of the conflict”.

China “calls on both sides to remain calm and exercise restraint... achieve a ceasefire as soon as possible, and avoid further bloodshed”, she told a regular press briefing.

“China has consistently mediated the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan through its own channels and is willing to continue playing a constructive role in easing tensions,” she added.

Both militaries said they killed dozens of soldiers in the border violence, which followed multiple Pakistani strikes on Afghanistan and clashes along the frontier in recent months.

Jets overhead

In the Afghan capital, AFP journalists heard jets and multiple loud blasts, followed by gunfire, over a period of more than two hours.

An AFP journalist in Afghanistan’s southern city of Kandahar, where Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, said he also heard jets overhead.

Streets in Kabul were quiet after daybreak, in keeping with a Friday during Ramadan in the Muslim-majority nation.

The Taliban government confirmed the Pakistani air strikes, with spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid saying there were no casualties.

Hours earlier, Mr Mujahid announced “large-scale offensive operations” at the border “in response to repeated violations by the Pakistani military”.

The Afghan Defence Ministry reported eight of its soldiers had been killed in the land offensive.

An Afghan official reported multiple civilians wounded near the Torkham border crossing, at a camp for people returning from Pakistan.

“A mortar shell has hit the camp and unfortunately seven of our refugees have been wounded, and the condition of one woman is serious,” said Mr Qureshi Badlun, the information chief in Nangarhar province.

Months of border violence

Mr Mujahid, the Taliban government spokesman, told AFP that several Pakistani soldiers had been “caught alive”, a claim denied by the prime minister’s office in Islamabad.

The military operation follows

Pakistani strikes on Nangarhar and Paktika provinces

overnight into Feb 22, which the UN mission in Afghanistan said killed at least 13 civilians.

Both sides also reported cross-border fire on Feb 24, but without casualties.

Besides military operations, there has been a series of deadly suicide blasts in Pakistan and Afghanistan in recent months.

They included an attack on a Shiite mosque in Islamabad that killed at least 40 people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.

The militant group’s regional chapter, Islamic State-Khorasan, also claimed a deadly suicide bombing at a restaurant in Kabul in January.

The air strikes on Feb 27 almost immediately sparked misinformation online, with a video of a large explosion racking up more than one million views within hours.

AFP fact-checkers found the footage – shared in English, Indonesian, Greek, Turkish and Arabic-language social media posts – was taken during the start of the Iraq War in 2003. AFP