Wars 2026 02/27 Recent War Between Pakistan & Afghanistan

[Saif]

Pakistan forces hit military facilities in Afghanistan

Pakistan said on Sunday its forces had attacked military facilities in southern Afghanistan, as well as ‘terrorist hideouts’, in the latest strikes between the two sides.

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Pakistan forces hit military facilities in Afghanistan
Agence France-Presse . Islamabad, Pakistan 16 March, 2026, 00:58

Pakistan said on Sunday its forces had attacked military facilities in southern Afghanistan, as well as ‘terrorist hideouts’, in the latest strikes between the two sides.

Security sources said troops ‘effectively destroyed technical support infrastructure and equipment storage facility in Kandahar’, which is home to the Taliban administration’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Another strike targeted a tunnel in Kandahar purportedly used by the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban militant group or TTP, which Islamabad blames for a wave of strikes, they added.

The military later said that four civilians — all brothers — were killed when Afghan shelling hit a house in Bajaur, on the Pakistan side of the border. Another person was seriously injured.

Both sides maintain they do not target civilians. Independent verification of deaths and injuries is difficult to obtain, given the hard-to-reach locations.

Local residents in Kandahar said they saw jet planes flying over the city and heard explosions during the night.

‘Military planes flew over the mountain where there is a military facility, and an explosion followed,’ one said, adding flames could be seen.

An air strike was also heard in Spin Boldak, southeast of Kandahar, residents said, while authorities in the eastern border province of Khost said there were clashes on Saturday night.

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the strikes caused some damage to a drug rehabilitation centre and an empty container in Kandahar.

‘The places they are talking about are far away from these two places,’ he added.

Pakistan said on Saturday it had thwarted ‘drone attacks’ launched by Afghanistan which were intercepted on Friday night.

At least three locations were targeted, including the Pakistani military headquarters in Rawalpindi, near the capital Islamabad, authorities said.

Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari’s office said the Afghan Taliban had ‘crossed a red line’ by targeting civilians, and promised a response.

Islamabad launched a military operation against Afghanistan last month, targeting what it said were Islamist extremists following attacks in Pakistan.

The Taliban government has denied any involvement or the use of Afghan territory for militancy, while Pakistan insists it does not target civilians.

There have been repeated clashes at the border in recent weeks, hampering trade and forcing nearby residents to leave their homes.

The UN mission in Afghanistan said on Friday that at least 75 civilians have been killed and 193 injured in Afghanistan as a result of the clashes since February 26.

The World Food Programme said Sunday that it has started delivering ‘life-saving food’ to over 20,000 Afghan families displaced by the conflict with Pakistan, warning ‘further instability will push millions into hunger’.

Families who fled their homes will initially receive fortified biscuits to address ‘urgent’ hunger, with the ready-to-eat rations intended to support people forced to flee and with limited access to cooking facilities.

In the coming weeks, the most vulnerable households will receive additional assistance, including two months’ worth of food or cash support, the UN agency said.

Months of cross-border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan have flared again since February 26.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government rejects.

The UN said on Friday that at least 75 civilians have been killed and 193 injured in Afghanistan as a result of the clashes.

‘Despite the dangerous conditions in the area, WFP has resumed operations in most border areas,’ it said in a statement.

Nearly half of Afghanistan — 21.9 million people — will need humanitarian aid this year, the UN said before the conflict with Pakistan flared up.

‘The escalation of conflicts in the Middle East’ and the closure of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border since last October pose ‘serious challenges’ to the humanitarian response, WFP underlined.

The UN agency is trying to secure an alternative route for supplies  to Afghanistan through  Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian  Sea,  and Turkmenistan.​

 

[Saif]

Afghanistan vows to avenge deadly Kabul bombing but says open to talks

A mass funeral for some of the hundreds of victims of a Pakistani strike on a Kabul drug treatment centre was held in Afghanistan on Wednesday, with the Taliban government promising retribution but leaving the door open for talks to end the conflict...

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Afghanistan vows to avenge deadly Kabul bombing but says open to talks
Agence France-Presse . Kabul, Afghanistan 18 March, 2026, 22:48

Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers stand near the coffins of victims of a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation centre, during a mass burial at the Badam Bagh Hilltop in Kabul on Wednesday. | AFP photo

A mass funeral for some of the hundreds of victims of a Pakistani strike on a Kabul drug treatment centre was held in Afghanistan on Wednesday, with the Taliban government promising retribution but leaving the door open for talks to end the conflict.

On a rainswept hillside above Kabul, Afghan Red Crescent Society volunteers carried dozens of simple wooden coffins from a fleet of ambulances to a mass grave dug in the rocky ground by giant excavators.

At the graveside, interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani said they were innocent victims targeted by ‘criminals’, days before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

‘Today is a sad day. I offer my condolences to Afghanistan, especially to the families of the martyrs,’ he told mourners.

‘We will take revenge,’ he added and warned those behind Monday night’s bombing: ‘We are not weak and helpless. You will see the consequences of your crimes.’

But Haqqani, who until last year had a $10-million US bounty on his head, also suggested that talks were the government’s preferred option to halt the fighting.

‘We do not want war but the situation has come to this,’ he said. ‘So, we are trying to solve the problems through diplomacy.’

The Taliban authorities have said that around 400 people were killed and more than 200 wounded in Monday’s strike — the deadliest yet in escalating violence between the two neighbours.

Islamabad, which denies deliberately bombing the centre, accuses Kabul of harbouring extremists behind cross-border attacks on its territory. Afghanistan denies doing so.

At the funeral, there was heavy security but no visible signs of any family members, according to an AFP team at the scene.

Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said the ceremony was for identified victims, and some had been sent back to their home provinces for burial.

Obtaining immediate independent confirmation of exact death tolls is difficult in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with attacks often in hard-to-reach places and conflicting information.

AFP journalists at the scene on Monday evening and Tuesday morning saw at least 95 bodies extracted from the rubble at the devastated centre.

Jacopo Caridi, the Afghanistan country director for the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian NGO, said they also had teams on the ground.

‘From what we saw and what we discussed with the others involved in the (emergency) response, we can say that there were hundreds of killed and wounded,’ he told AFP.

Recovery of bodies has proved difficult because of the debris and collapsed structures and Caridi described the scene as ‘shocking’, which would make identification more difficult.

‘In Europe, we have the systems to identify the people, even from body parts,’ he added.

‘But here, I don’t know if they have these systems. But what I saw was a finger in one place, a foot in another place, a hand in one location. It was really horrific,’ said Caridi.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have faced calls for an immediate end to the conflict, with the overall civilian death toll mounting and concern about those displaced.

The UN said before Monday’s strike that at least 76 Afghan civilians had been killed in the fighting, and that more than 1,15,000 families had been forced from their homes.

The focus of Gulf countries, which led early attempts, has shifted to the situation in their own backyard since the start of US-Israeli strikes on Iran last month.

Before Monday’s strike, China had dispatched a special envoy to mediate between Afghanistan and Pakistan, pledging to play a ‘constructive role in de-escalating tensions’.

Russia’s special representative for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, has said Moscow ‘will be ready’ to help diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting ‘if both sides simultaneously turn to it with a request for mediation’.

‘So far, this has not happened,’ he told pro-Kremlin outlet Izvestia.​