Islamabad
What we know about the Afghanistan and Pakistan clashes
Fighting broke out after Taliban-run Afghanistan launched attacks on Pakistani positions late Thursday night. Clashes have erupted along parts of the border, with airstrikes extending further into both countries. Afghanistan and Pakistan are fighting again, trading deadly shelling and mortar fire across their rugged border, with Islamabad’s defense minister saying his country’s patience had “run out” and declaring “open war” on its Taliban-run neighbor. It’s the latest flare-up in an on-off conflict that pitches Pakistan’s well-funded, powerful and nuclear-armed military against hardened Afghan Taliban fighters with decades of battle experience – including victory over US and NATO forces in 2021 after years of insurgency.
What we know about the Afghanistan and Pakistan clashes Fighting broke out after Taliban-run Afghanistan launched attacks on Pakistani positions late Thursday night. Clashes have erupted along parts of the border, with airstrikes extending further into both countries. The two sides have reported differing casualty figures. Pakistan claimed that its military had killed 274 Afghan Taliban fighters and injured 400. Afghanistan said 13 of its soldiers had been killed and 22 wounded in Friday’s attack. The Taliban-government spokesman, Zabiullah Mujaid, also claimed that Afghanistan killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured others, as its forces destroyed 19 Pakistani military posts. CNN isn’t able to verify reports from the remote region where the fighting is taking place. Pakistan’s information minister said militants from the Pakistani Taliban attempted to launch drones attacks in the northwest from within the country, which Pakistan’s anti-drone systems thwarted. “The incidents have again exposed direct linkages between Afghan Taliban Regime and Terrorism in Pakistan,” Pakistan’s information minister Attaullah Tarar said.
Tarar lambasted the Afghan Taliban as an “illegitimate regime,” in a later statement Friday, and claimed it “actively sponsors cross-border terrorism, institutionalizes slavery, and orchestrates the systematic erasure of women and minorities.”
Afghanistan’s Mujaid said on Friday: “We have always repeatedly emphasized a peaceful solution, and we still want to find a solution through dialogue.”
The US State Department expressed support for Pakistan’s “right to defend itself” against Taliban attacks, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Allison Hooker said in a social media post.
Source: cnn.com
