The United States on February 27 (local time) extended its support to Pakistan after it bombed neighboring Afghanistan and declared “open war” against its Taliban government following clashes along the border.
Pakistan launched airstrikes on Afghan cities on Friday morning. The Pakistani attacks came hours after Afghanistan said it had launched a cross-border attack in the latest escalation of violence between neighboring countries along their porous border.
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“We continue to closely monitor the situation and have expressed support for Pakistan’s right to defend itself against Taliban attacks,” Allison Hooker, assistant secretary of state for political affairs, wrote on X after meeting with her Pakistani counterpart.
She said she had conveyed her “condolences over the lives lost in the recent Pakistan-Taliban conflict” to Foreign Minister Amna Baloch, Pakistan’s top diplomat.
Hooker’s brief statement did not call for an end to the fighting. Unlike the US, the UK has previously called for “de-escalation”, China has called for a ceasefire and Iran has offered to mediate.
The EU calls for immediate de-escalation
The European Commission (EU) also called on all actors to immediately de-escalate and at the same time urged the Afghan authorities to take effective measures against all terrorist groups.
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“The EU reiterates that Afghan territory must not be used to threaten or attack other countries and calls on the de facto Afghan authorities to take effective action against all terrorist groups operating in or from Afghanistan,” a senior EU official said in a statement on the escalation between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Pakistan has bombed Afghanistan’s capital cities in its most significant attacks since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 following the US withdrawal. Afghanistan said Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Kabul and Kandahar in the south and in the southeastern province of Paktia.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif acknowledged the Pakistani strikes and declared “open war” on the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
The war in Afghanistan has soured US relations with Pakistan, with former President Joe Biden wanting nothing to do with Islamabad because of past support for the Taliban when the United States supported the pro-Western government.
I think Pakistan is doing great: Trump
President Donald Trump has reversed course and forged close ties with Pakistan, which went out of its way to praise him for its mediation during a conflict with India last year and said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.
Asked about the attacks on Afghanistan on Friday, Trump welcomed Pakistan’s powerful military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
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“You’ve got a great prime minister, you’ve got a great general there, you’ve got a great leader. I think two of the people I really respect a lot,” Trump told reporters.
“I think Pakistan is doing amazingly well,” he said.
Why is Pakistan attacking Afghanistan?
Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan, two neighbors, have been high for months, with dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants killed in deadly border clashes in October.
A ceasefire brokered by Qatar was agreed between the two places on October 19 last year. The ceasefire is largely in place, but both sides have still occasionally fired across the border. Several rounds of peace talks in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
The Afghan Taliban government said on Friday willing to negotiate after Pakistan bombed their forces in major cities and declared that the allies-turned-enemies were in “open war”.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has always tried to solve problems through dialogue and now we want to solve this matter through dialogue as well,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
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Mujahid said Pakistani strikes hit parts of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktiya on Thursday night and Paktiya, Paktiq, Khost and Laghman on Friday. It followed attacks by Afghan drones that began late Thursday on Pakistani military positions and facilities in northwest Pakistan along their shared border.
Pakistani officials said strikes in the country killed 274 Taliban officials and militants, while Afghanistan said it killed 55 Pakistani soldiers – a figure Reuters was unable to verify.
Pakistan confirmed 12 of its own soldiers had been killed, and Afghanistan said it had lost 13 Taliban fighters.
In New York, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was “deeply concerned about the escalation of violence” between Afghanistan and Pakistan and the impact it is having on the civilian population, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
We continue to monitor the situation closely and have expressed support for Pakistan’s right to defend itself against Taliban attacks.
“He calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities and reiterates his call for the parties to resolve any differences through diplomacy,” Dujarric said.
