Pakistan bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, with Islamabad's defence minister declaring the neighbours at "open war" following months of tit-for-tat clashes.
Reporters in Kabul and Kandahar heard blasts and jets overhead until dawn and the Taliban government said Pakistani surveillance aircraft were flying over Afghanistan on Friday afternoon.
The overnight 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, a journalist heard shelling on Friday morning and a camp accommodating Afghans who had returned from Pakistan was hit by the fighting overnight.
"Children, women and old people were running", Gander Khan, a 65-year-old returnee, said in front of rows of tents at the Omari camp.
Pakistan's latest operation came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night 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 that killed more than 70 people on both sides.
Both the Afghan and Pakistani militaries said they killed dozens of soldiers in the latest violence.
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".
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government's spokesman, later said in Kandahar it wanted "dialogue" to resolve the conflict. "We have repeatedly emphasised a peaceful solution and still want the problem to be resolved through dialogue", Mujahid told a news conference, adding: "Right now, Pakistani planes, reconnaissance aircraft, are flying over Afghanistan's airspace".
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 between Islamabad and Kabul followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Türkiye, but the efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
