Pakistan and Afghanistan locked in fourth day of open war
Afghan authorities said on March 1 that their forces repelled an attempted Pakistani airstrike near Bagram Air Base, as intense cross-border clashes stretched into a fourth straight day of open conflict between the two neighbours during Ramadan. Taliban officials reported that several Pakistani jets entered Afghan airspace around dawn before turning back under fire from Afghan air defence systems, including anti-aircraft guns and surface-to-air missiles. Pakistan has not publicly confirmed the incident, but Afghan defence officials framed it as proof that they could deter deeper incursions into their territory.
Soon after, Afghanistan’s Defence Ministry announced what it described as “effective” retaliatory strikes on Pakistani military facilities, saying its forces had targeted the Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi, the 12th Brigade base in Quetta, and a Pakistani camp in the Mohmand border region. Afghan officials claimed these attacks were aimed at “military infrastructure” they accuse Pakistan of using to support air and artillery operations inside Afghan territory. Pakistani authorities have acknowledged ongoing operations against what they call militant threats along the frontier but have rejected Afghan descriptions of the strikes as unprovoked aggression.
The slide from recurring border clashes to open warfare began after Pakistani airstrikes on February 21 hit sites in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar, Paktika, and Khost provinces, which Islamabad said were camps belonging to the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State Khorasan. Kabul denounced those strikes as a breach of sovereignty that killed civilians and vowed to respond at a time and place of its choosing. On February 26, Taliban units launched coordinated operations across several border provinces into Pakistan, prompting Islamabad to roll out Operation Ghazab Lil Haq, a large-scale campaign of air and ground attacks on Taliban positions in Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia, and other areas. Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif declared that the confrontation had reached the level of “open war,” signalling a sharp break with the previous pattern of limited cross-border fire and deniable strikes.
Both governments have released sharply divergent casualty claims that independent observers say cannot be verified in the current conditions. Pakistan’s information authorities and military have spoken of hundreds of Afghan fighters killed and injured in days of air and artillery attacks, saying their operations have focused on Taliban combat units and allied militants. Taliban officials reject those figures, insisting their own losses are far lower while asserting that Pakistani forces have suffered dozens of fatalities in border clashes and in strikes on military positions. Each side accuses the other of inflating enemy casualty numbers for propaganda while downplaying its own.
The civilian toll is mounting on both sides of the frontier, raising alarm among humanitarian organisations and foreign governments. Afghan officials say scores of civilians, including women and children, have been killed or wounded in Pakistani strikes in provinces such as Paktika, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, and Kandahar, while media outlets have reported additional deaths in the latest bombardments. Pakistan maintains that its operations are intelligence-driven and designed to avoid civilian areas, but local testimonies from inside Afghanistan describe homes and community sites struck near the border. With fighting continuing into early March, residents in frontier districts are fleeing or sheltering indoors as artillery fire, airstrikes, and drone activity continue over key crossing points.
The crisis has triggered growing external pressure for de-escalation, even as neither government shows signs of backing down. The European Union and regional powers such as Iran have urged both sides to return to dialogue, while the UN secretary-general has warned that further escalation will deepen civilian suffering and destabilise a wider region already strained by conflict. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid has said Kabul remains open to talks and wants a negotiated way out of the confrontation, but Pakistan has linked any move toward negotiations to decisive action against the Pakistani Taliban, which Islamabad says operates from Afghan soil. Asif has also revived accusations that the Taliban authorities are acting as a proxy aligned with India, rhetoric that underscores how the war is entangled with older regional rivalries and mistrust.
With no ceasefire framework in place and mutual distrust deepening, analysts and diplomats fear the border conflict could entrench into a prolonged confrontation that further weakens already fragile economies and governance on both sides. For now, artillery exchanges, air operations, and competing narratives over the battlefield and civilian casualties continue to define a war that neither Islamabad nor Kabul appears able or willing to quickly stop.
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