KABUL/ISLAMABAD — Afghanistan said its air defenses fired at Pakistani jets over Kabul after pre-dawn explosions and gunfire rattled the capital, the latest and most visible escalation in a burst of cross-border hostilities that has raised fears of a wider conflict in a region already on edge from U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks on U.S. targets in Gulf states.
Taliban administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the blasts heard across parts of Kabul before sunrise were the result of Afghan forces targeting intruding aircraft. “Air defence attacks were carried out in Kabul against Pakistani aircraft. Kabul residents should not be concerned,” Mujahid said. A witness reported a series of explosions followed by sustained bursts of gunfire.
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Pakistan’s prime minister’s office, information ministry and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The exchange comes days after Pakistan launched airstrikes inside Afghanistan that it said targeted militant infrastructure. Islamabad accuses the Taliban-led government of harboring militants from Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) who are waging an insurgency inside Pakistan. Kabul denies the allegation, says it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries, and has called Pakistan’s security challenges an internal matter.
Afghanistan condemned the earlier strikes as a violation of sovereignty and announced retaliatory operations along the 2,600-kilometer border. Pakistani security sources have described an ongoing operation dubbed “Ghazab Lil Haq,” or “Wrath for the Truth,” saying Pakistani forces destroyed Afghan posts and camps. Both sides have reported heavy losses, offering differing casualty figures for each other that could not be independently verified.
The heaviest fighting in years between the neighbors has drawn urgent regional and international appeals for restraint. Qatar and Saudi Arabia have offered to help mediate a ceasefire, while Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, the European Union and the United Nations have called for dialogue to prevent further escalation. Iran, which borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan, had also offered to facilitate talks before coming under attack itself in strikes attributed to Israel and the United States aimed at reducing Iran’s military capabilities.
Washington has said it supports Pakistan’s right to defend itself, a stance that underscores the complex security dynamics at play as the conflict threatens to spill over a rugged frontier where militants, smugglers and civilians routinely traverse mountain passes and contested crossing points.
The rhetoric has hardened alongside the exchanges of fire. Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif described the confrontation as “open war,” signaling Islamabad’s readiness to sustain operations as it presses Kabul over the TTP. From the Afghan side, Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani warned the conflict would be “very costly,” adding that only front-line forces had been engaged so far and that Afghanistan had not fully deployed its military.
The Taliban government, seeking to burnish its claim of territorial control since returning to power in 2021, is under pressure to demonstrate it can deter cross-border strikes without triggering a broader conflagration. Kabul’s message to residents to remain calm after the air-defense fire highlighted concerns about stability in the capital, where sporadic attacks by Islamic State Khorasan Province and other actors have periodically shattered a fragile sense of normalcy.
For Pakistan, the renewed violence comes as it confronts economic headwinds and a resilient insurgency in its northwest. Islamabad argues that sanctuaries in Afghanistan allow the TTP to regroup and strike across the border, a charge Afghan authorities reject. The two countries have repeatedly traded accusations over the years, but the current cycle has deepened worries that miscalculation or an errant strike could push the rivals into sustained confrontation.
With both governments staking out firm positions and claiming battlefield gains, attention has turned to whether outside mediation can create space for de-escalation. For now, the skies over Kabul and the borderlands remain a potential flash point, and residents on both sides of the frontier are bracing for what may come next.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
