Afghanistan accuses Pakistan of targeting civilians after 6 killed in
airstrikes
[March 14, 2026]
By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN and MUNIR AHMED
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan’s Taliban government accused
Pakistan on Friday of targeting homes in overnight airstrikes on Kabul
and other areas of the country, saying at least six civilians were
killed and more than a dozen others were injured.
Pakistan denied targeting civilians, as fighting between the neighbors
entered its third week.
Afghan government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistani aircraft
also struck fuel depots belonging to the private airline Kam Air near
the airport in Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. “This company supplies
fuel to civilian airlines as well as to United Nations aircraft,” he
said on a post on X.
Pakistan’s military carried out “successful airstrikes inside
Afghanistan” as part of the ongoing operation, according to the
Information Ministry. It said the strikes targeted four alleged militant
hideouts and their support infrastructure in Afghanistan. The ministry
said Pakistan did not target any civilian population.
On Friday, a roadside bomb targeting a police vehicle killed six
officers in Lakki Marwat, a district in northwest Pakistan, police
official Sajjad Khan said. No one claimed responsibility, but suspicion
is likely to fall on the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which often claim such attacks.
The developments come amid a dramatic increase in tensions between the
two countries — which Pakistan has referred to as “open war ” — adding
to concerns about the stability in the region as the U.S.-Israeli war
against Iran continues with no end in sight, generating great
uncertainty.
Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said it responded to Pakistan's attacks
by targeting Pakistani military installations in the Kohat district,
causing heavy losses.
In a post on X, Khalil Hamraz, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s General
Directorate of Intelligence, said two drones were used to strike a
military facility near Islamabad. But Pakistani police said two
rudimentary drones were spotted in the area and brought down using
electronic measures and that the drones caused no damage.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information also said that the TTP attempted to
deploy three rudimentary drones in Kohat, but that Pakistani forces shot
them down. Two civilians were injured by falling debris, it said.
Mujahid claimed Pakistani strikes hit multiple civilian sites and
uninhabited locations in Afghanistan’s Paktia and Paktika provinces, as
well as other areas. He said the attacks “will not go unanswered.”
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said at least four civilians,
including children, were killed in the city and 15 others were injured.
Afghanistan’s Department of Information and Culture in Nangarhar
province said a Pakistani mortar shell killed a woman and a child.
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Taliban police guard the area where a strike hit a house in the
Momand Dara district of Nangarhar province, Afghanistan, near the
border with Pakistan, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hedayat
Shah)
The total number of casualties around Afghanistan was unclear.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have been targeting each other’s military
installations since late February, when Kabul said it struck
Pakistani posts in response to Pakistani attacks along the border.
Pakistan’s military has said its operations targeted the TTP and its
support networks along the border.
The ongoing dispute is rooted in Pakistan’s belief that
Afghanistan’s Taliban government is harboring militant groups that
stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival,
India. The Taliban denies harboring militant groups.
Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy losses in what has become
the deadliest fighting in years.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Friday said the
military has killed 663 Afghan Taliban since the fighting began.
There was no immediate comment from Kabul.
On Thursday, China’s special envoy Yue Xiaoyong arrived in Islamabad
for talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Mohammad Sadiq, following
a visit to Kabul.
Sadiq, Pakistan’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said he and Yue
“discussed threats posed by terrorist groups” and agreed on the need
for collective efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability.
Repeated international community calls for restraint have had little
effect. Pakistan has previously said its strikes along the border
and inside Afghanistan are aimed solely at Khawarij, a phrase
Islamabad uses for the TTP.
Since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021, the TTP has
intensified attacks inside Pakistan and along the border. Islamabad
says its military operations will continue until Kabul takes
verifiable steps to curb the TTP and other militants operating from
its territory.
A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting in October,
but several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to
produce a lasting agreement.
___
Ahmed reported from Islamabad. Associated Press writers Riaz Khan
and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to this story.
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