Pakistan, Afghanistan ‘War’ LIVE: Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq on Friday and carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early on Friday in retaliation for Afghanistan’s “cross-border attack on Pakistan”.
This comes after 55 Pakistani soldiers were reportedly killed in retaliatory operations along the Durand Line on Thursday.
Two senior Pakistani security officials told the AP that the Pakistani military had carried out airstrikes targeting what they described as Afghan military installations in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia provinces, reportedly destroying two brigade bases.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information said the Afghan Taliban launched “unprovoked firing” at multiple locations along the border in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa areas of Chitral, Khyber, Mohmand, Kurram and Bajaur sectors on Thursday evening.
Afghanistan had earlier launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan in the latest escalation of violence between the neighboring countries, which has left a Qatar-brokered ceasefire looking increasingly precarious.
In a press release, the Afghan ministry said the operation was launched at 20:00 on 9 Ramadan, equivalent to 26 February, in response to what it described as an incursion into Afghan territory by Pakistani military forces a few days earlier.
The ministry said Afghan forces targeted Pakistani military positions in the eastern and southeastern direction along the Durand Line, near the provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan.
Stay tuned to this LIVE blog for all the latest updates in the Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes.
