Name: Afghanistan says it launches attacks against Pakistan
Uploaded: 2026-02-26T23:01:40.000Z
Duration: 9 min 43 s
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Afghan and Pakistani forces are attacking each other along a border area.

The fighting is being concentrated in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

The Afghan government says it launched operations against Pakistani army positions in retaliation for airstrikes earlier this week.

And Afghan military officials told Al Jazeera that that the country's forces have taken control of 15 Pakistani border posts.

Meanwhile, Pakistan says it's damaged at least four Afghan military posts.

In response to repeated border violations and aggression by Pakistani military circles, large scale offensive operations have been launched against Pakistani army positions and military installations along the Durand line.

Well, what we do know is that this is a vast stretch of the border with Afghanistan which starts from Chitral up north, then Baja, Warman, Khyber, as well as the Kurum district.

That shows you the scale of the attack that was carried out by the Afghans, which is still ongoing.

The Pakistani authorities are also claiming that they've inflicted casualties on the other side, and

the Afghans, of course, claiming the same of inflicting casualties on the Pakistani side.

And this all started because it was on earlier last week that Pakistan launched airstrikes on seven, seven different locations.

The Afghan side said that there were casualties in the Ningara province, which included civilians, but

they did not mention the casualties in Paktika Province, where Pakistan said that it had intelligence, verifiable intelligence, and

that struck the Tehrika, Taliban, Pakistan, as well as ISIL positions in Paktika province.

But this particular escalation is indeed dangerous, as I mentioned, because this is a vast frontier region, mostly mountainous, and

both sides, of course, are claiming to have inflicted heavy losses on the other side.

Are you hearing anything, Kamal, from the government officials in Pakistan about this situation that's going on at the moment, but

Well, Pakistani government has already said that there was an unprovoked line of fire from the Afghan side on multiple fronts.

And that the Pakistanis then retaliated on those fronts.

And of course, Pakistan is claiming that they have inflicted heavy casualties, that this was an unprovoked attack across several positions along that long frontier.

And of course, we cannot rule out the fact that Pakistan may carry out further airstrike in retaliation to the ongoing situation.

So both sides, of course, are claiming counterclaims are coming out.

But this is indeed a dangerous escalation and that could neither side can afford.

So, indeed, we've been hearing from the locals Also of heavy artillery being used and, of course, of claims that both sides are claiming that they have captured positions along that bordering region.

Kamal Haider in Islamabad, thank you very much indeed.

Zeeshan Salahuddin is director at the center for Regional and Global Connectivity at Tabard Lab.

So thank you very much indeed for being with us.

Now, we have seen clashes between both sides for many months now.

This seems to be a significant escalation.

What is your assessment of what's happening at the moment?

I mean, this is not the first time that they've tried it.

The fact of the matter is that the Afghan Taliban regime is an internationally banned organization that is now in charge of a country, the assets of which have been frozen by the US and the eu.

And they have consistently facilitated, bolstered, as well as protected the Pakistani Taliban that reside on that side of the border.

And you don't have to take my word for it, Rob.

These are UN reports that put several thousand fighters inside of Afghanistan that are from the gdp.

The gdp, as you might know, is the organization that routinely claims terrorist attacks inside of Pakistan, including one that happened not that long ago close to the federal capital.

So this escalation by the official regime inside of Kabul against Pakistan security forces on the border is tacit agreement that they would much rather side with the terror organization than come to the negotiation table and do something to curb these terrorists that they've been harboring for the last four and a half years that they've been in power.

Pakistan, of course, has been accused by Afghanistan of killing women and children, civilians, in the airstrikes that were carried out earlier in the week.

Was there not an anticipation or at least an understanding by Pakistan that action like that is going to provoke a significant response?

I can't speak on behalf of the Pakistani government.

I can comment on this as a Pakistani citizen, and

as a Pakistani citizen, I have seen tens of thousands of my countrymen, especially law enforcement officials, be they police, levies, be they paramilitary, be the military targeted systematically by the TTP and murdered in the thousands.

And we have all of the numbers to prove this.

These numbers are tracked by multiple think tanks around the world, some of them based in D.C.

some of them based in Europe, some of them are Pakistani.

The fact of the matter is that over the course of time, almost every strategy has been tried.

And whether this is these strategies are peaceful or negotiatory or even indelicate, such as closing down borders or denying visas.

In the last four years we have sent over planes full of bureaucrats, politicians, diplomats, ethnic leaders, religious leaders, tribal leaders to try and negotiate some kind of settlement where at the very least the Afghan Taliban stays the hand of the Taliban Pakistan and prevents them from attacking civilians and law enforcement inside of Pakistan.

Hundreds of attacks of which have happened in the last year and the year preceding.

But all of those negotiations have failed.

I might also remind you that in November when the Turkish mediated talks happened in Istanbul and fell apart, it was just a few days after those talks fell apart in which the Afghan Taliban refused once again to do anything about the Pakistan Taliban that they harbor.

There was a suicide bombing claimed by the TDP inside Pakistan's capital in the G11 sector, right next to a district court facility.

So at this point, I think the, the fact of the matter is here's an entity that cannot be negotiated with that will not listen to reason.

The only option outside of everything that Pakistan has tried is to go after these hideouts in a systematic manner and try to wipe them out because they do not operate on our sovereign soil for us to be able to do something about it within the country.

So if that is the action that you would recommend, or at least that you feel is appropriate, I should say, would Pakistanis support a large scale response from the Pakistan Pakistani military on these hideouts that you're talking about if the eventual outcome of that could be that it was going to lead the country into a prolonged war.

No one wants a war with Afghanistan, much less the, the civilian leadership or the military leadership.

When the skirmish with India happened back in May in which the Pakistani air force downed seven planes once India decided to incur into Pakistan.

And result of that particular encounter is very well known.

The point here being that at the end of the day, if Pakistan has to defend itself by any means necessary, we have seen historically the public coming together to support the military, to support its civilian leadership, especially when lives are threatened.

And we have seen time and again that threat emerge uncalled, unprovoked.

This particular skirmish at the border in which they have now attacked multiple Pakistani checkposts.

And of course, you know, they are the official power in Afghanistan, so they will give a statement to a channel like Alzita in which they claim they've taken over 15 checkposts.

The fact that Pakistan could thwart an Indian attack, which spends 10 times of Pakistani military budget on its military is going to succumb to some small attack from across the border from Afghanistan is frankly laughable.

But at the end of the day, if push come to shove, nobody wants war.

We would much rather solve this through peaceful negotiation and through dialogue.

But it appears that the other side is simply not willing to listen to any form of reason.

Well, we'll find out in the coming hours and days whether or not those claims by Afghanistan are true.

As more evidence comes out, we get a clearer picture of what's happening on the ground.

Seashan Salahuddin, director at the Centre for Regional and Global Connectivity at Tabard Lab, we appreciate it.

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