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Pakistan bombed large cities successful Afghanistan, including the superior Kabul, connected Friday (February 27, 2026), with Islamabad's Defence Minister declaring the neighbours astatine "open war" pursuing months of tit-for-tat clashes.
AFP journalists successful Kabul and Kandahar heard blasts and jets overhead, arsenic Pakistan launched aerial strikes connected the Afghan superior and confederate powerfulness basal of the Taliban authorities.
Pakistan's latest cognition came aft Afghan forces attacked Pakistani borderline troops connected Thursday (February 26, 2026) nighttime implicit earlier aerial strikes by Islamabad.
Relations betwixt the neighbours person plunged successful caller months, with onshore borderline crossings mostly unopen since deadly warring successful October that killed much than 70 radical connected some sides.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to enactment against militant groups that transportation retired attacks successful Pakistan, which the Taliban authorities denies.
Several rounds of negotiations followed an initial ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey, but the efforts person failed to nutrient a lasting agreement.
Both militaries said they killed dozens of soldiers successful the latest circular of borderline violence, which followed aggregate Pakistani strikes connected Afghanistan and clashes on the frontier successful caller months.
"Afghan Taliban defence targets were targeted successful Kabul, Paktia [province] and Kandahar," Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar posted connected X, portion Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared an "all-out confrontation" with the Taliban government.
"Our patience has reached its limit. Now it is unfastened warfare betwixt america and you," helium posted connected the societal media platform.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said his country's equipped forces tin "have the afloat capableness to crush immoderate assertive ambitions".
Jets overhead
In the Afghan superior AFP journalists heard jets and aggregate large blasts, followed by gunfire, implicit a play of respective hours.
An AFP newsman successful Afghanistan's confederate metropolis of Kandahar, wherever Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, said helium heard jets overhead.
The Taliban authorities confirmed the Pakistani aerial strikes, with spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid saying determination were nary casualties.
Hours earlier, Mujahid announced "large-scale violative operations" astatine the borderline "in effect to repeated violations by the Pakistani military".
The Afghan Defence Ministry reported 8 of its soldiers had been killed successful the onshore offensive.
An Afghan authoritative reported aggregate civilians wounded adjacent the Torkham borderline crossing, astatine a campy for radical returning from Pakistan.
"A mortar ammunition has deed the campy and unluckily 7 of our refugees person been wounded, and the information of 1 pistillate is serious," said Qureshi Badlun, the accusation main successful Nangarhar province.
While the borderline has mostly been closed since October, Afghan returnees person been allowed to cross.
Months of borderline violence
Mujahid, the Taliban authorities spokesman, told AFP that respective Pakistani soldiers had been "caught alive", a assertion denied by the Prime Minister's Office successful Islamabad.
The subject cognition follows Pakistani strikes connected Nangarhar and Paktika provinces overnight into Sunday (February 22, 2026), which the UN ngo successful Afghanistan said killed astatine slightest 13 civilians.
Both sides besides reported cross-border occurrence connected Tuesday (February 24, 2026), but without casualties.
There has been a bid of deadly termination blasts successful Pakistan and Afghanistan successful caller months.
They included an onslaught connected a Shiite mosque successful Islamabad that killed astatine slightest 40 radical and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
The militant group's determination chapter, Islamic State-Khorasan, besides claimed a deadly termination bombing astatine a edifice successful Kabul past month.
After repeated breaches of the archetypal ceasefire, Saudi Arabia intervened this month, mediating the merchandise of 3 Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan successful October.
