Intense fighting along the Afghan-Pakistan border has escalated with air strikes, including on the former US Bagram base, as both sides trade civilian and military casualty claims.
KABUL: Afghan and Pakistani forces engaged in fierce clashes along their shared border overnight, with residents and officials reporting multiple air strikes, including one targeting the former US air base at Bagram.
The latest fighting marks a continuation of cross-border hostilities that flared on Thursday after Afghanistan launched a ground offensive, prompting retaliatory strikes from Pakistani forces on the frontier and from the air.
Residents in Afghanistan’s border provinces described overnight fighting, while officials in Nangarhar province confirmed two civilians were killed in separate drone strikes.
A resident near Bagram air base, north of Kabul, reported a powerful dawn air strike that caused smoke and fire, describing the raid as “very terrifying”.
Nangarhar provincial spokesman Fazl ul Rahim Maskin Yar stated Pakistani jets had “attempted to bomb” the base but caused no casualties or damage, a claim Pakistan has not commented on.
Pakistan acknowledged bombing key Afghan cities including Kabul and Kandahar on Friday but remained silent on Sunday’s reported strikes, which were heard by AFP journalists in the capital.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that “anti-aircraft fire is being directed at Pakistani aircraft” as security forces increased their presence in Kabul with additional checkpoints.
An AFP journalist also reported hearing drones in the border province of Khost and sighted a jet over Jalalabad city, which lies between Kabul and the frontier.
Afghan deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat accused Pakistani fire of killing 36 civilians across multiple provinces since Thursday, a claim Islamabad has not addressed.
Residents in Khost province and a military spokesman in neighbouring Paktia reported heavy overnight clashes, while officials also noted fighting at the key Torkham border crossing.
Afghan officials stated their Thursday offensive was a direct response to earlier Pakistani air strikes that killed civilians, which Islamabad said had targeted militant hideouts.
Displaced residents like 46-year-old Javed, who fled his home in Khost, are pleading for international intervention, demanding “the whole world to put pressure on Pakistan to stop the war”.
Diplomatic efforts led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar have so far failed to secure a ceasefire between the neighbours, who are locked in a long-standing dispute over militant activity.
Islamabad accuses the Taliban government of failing to rein in militant groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which have stepped up attacks inside Pakistan since the Taliban’s 2021 return to power.
Analysts note this week’s escalation is significant as Pakistan has for the first time focused air strikes on Afghan government facilities rather than just militant targets.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar claimed on Saturday that air strikes had hit 41 locations across Afghanistan, killing more than 350 Afghan soldiers since the operation began.
Islamabad earlier stated 12 of its own soldiers had been killed, while Afghanistan’s deputy spokesman Fitrat claimed more than 80 Pakistani soldiers were dead and 27 military posts captured.
The Afghan government had previously put its own military death toll at 13, though casualty claims from both sides remain difficult to verify independently.
The recent violence represents the worst flare-up since October clashes killed more than 70 people, with land borders largely shut since that earlier fighting.
Several rounds of negotiations brokered by Qatar and Turkey last year had followed a temporary ceasefire, but those diplomatic channels have yet to yield a lasting peace.
The Sun Malaysia
