Pakistan carries out airstrikes inside Afghanistan with no letup in
border fighting
[February 28, 2026]
By MUNIR AHMED and ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s military, backed by artillery and air power,
struck more military installations deep inside Afghanistan overnight and
into early Saturday, after Pakistan said it was in “open war” with its
eastern neighbor.
Pakistan claimed more than 300 Afghan forces had been killed since
fighting erupted Thursday night during a broad Afghan cross-border
attack into Pakistan. Afghanistan rejected the figures as false. The
casualty figures provided by either side could not be independently
confirmed.
Pakistani and Afghan forces have targeted each other’s military
positions since Thursday night, when Afghanistan launched a cross-border
attack in response to Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan last Sunday.
Pakistan said it was targeting the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, known as
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group is separate but closely
allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban. Afghanistan, however, said
only civilians were killed in Sunday's airstrike.
After the Afghan attack, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad
Asif declared Friday: “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war
between us.”
Continued fighting
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Saturday that more
than 331 Afghan forces had been killed and over 500 others wounded
during the ongoing military strikes in Afghanistan. Pakistan destroyed
102 Afghan posts, captured 22 others and destroyed 163 tanks and armored
vehicles at 37 locations, he said.
The Afghan government's deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said the
claim of hundreds of Afghan forces killed and wounded “is untrue and we
reject it.” On Friday night, he said 19 civilians were killed, while
another three died and seven were wounded Saturday morning when Pakistan
bombed a refugee camp in the southern province of Kandahar.
On Friday, Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said 13 Afghan
forces were killed and 22 wounded. He also said 55 Pakistani soldiers
were killed. Pakistan put its own military figures at 12 killed, 27
wounded and one soldier missing in action.
Pakistan’s state-run media reported the country’s air force carried out
strikes targeting key military installations in various areas of eastern
Afghanistan.
According to Pakistani authorities, hundreds of residents living near
the northwestern Torkham border crossing had fled. In recent days,
Pakistan has also transported dozens of Afghan refugees who had been
waiting at Torkham to return home to safety.
Ejaz Ul Haq, an Afghan refugee stranded near the Torkham border with his
family, said he could not return to Afghanistan because of the fighting.
Many others were struggling to obtain food during the fasting month of
Ramadan, he said.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry on Saturday said Afghanistan attacked
Pakistani military bases in Miranshah and Spin Wam overnight, destroying
military installations and causing heavy casualties in response to the
ongoing airstrikes by Pakistan.
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People gather around the coffin of an army soldier, killed in the
cross-border clashes of Pakistan and Afghan forces, during a funeral
prayer in a village in Lakki Marwat, a district of Pakistan's Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa province, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/G.A. Marwat)
Afghanistan says Pakistan targeting civilian areas
In eastern Afghanistan, the Department of Information and Culture
accused Pakistan of targeting civilian areas, destroying homes and
killing at least 11 people. There was no immediate response from
Pakistan, which has said it is targeting only military
installations.
Mullah Taj Mohammad Naqshbandi, an Afghan commissioner on Afghan
side of the Torkham border, said in a statement Saturday that the
“brave forces of the Islamic Emirate destroyed the Pakistani
military regime’s commissariat, military units, and three important
security towers.”
On Friday, the Afghan government said 55 Pakistani soldiers were
killed during its strikes and Afghan losses were far lower than
Pakistan claimed.
Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesman, said Friday that the
country's attacks on Pakistani military targets were meant as “a
message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will
respond to every evil act of Pakistan.” He added that “Pakistan has
never sought to resolve problems through dialogue.”
Pakistan has frequently accused Kabul of sheltering the TTP,
allegations the group and Afghanistan’s Taliban government deny.
Pakistan’s army spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Friday
the Afghan government had only one choice: “either choose TTP or
Pakistan.”
Tension high for months
Tensions have been high since October, when dozens of soldiers,
civilians and suspected militants were killed in border clashes. A
Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting that month, but
several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to
produce a lasting agreement. The two sides have occasionally traded
fire since then, though the ceasefire had largely held until last
week, when Pakistan struck what it described as TTP hideouts.
Since then, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China and several other
countries are again attempting to defuse tensions by offering
mediation.
Qatar’s minister of state, Mohammed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, spoke
Friday with the foreign ministers of Afghanistan and Pakistan in an
effort to de-escalate tensions, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said in a
post on X.
___
Abdul Qahar Afghan reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated
Press writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan,
contributed to this report.
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