Pakistan says 415 Taliban fighters killed as border fighting with Afghanistan escalates

Pakistan’s Information Minister Atta Ullah Tarar said on Sunday that 415 Taliban fighters have been killed since the launch of “Operation Ghazb lil Haq,” as cross-border fighting with Afghanistan intensifies.

In a statement, Tarar said more than 580 Taliban fighters were injured during the operation.

He said Pakistani forces destroyed 182 Taliban check posts and captured 31 others. According to the minister, 185 tanks, armed vehicles and artillery guns were destroyed, and 41 locations across Afghanistan had been hit by air strikes since the operation began.

Afghan and Pakistani troops battled along their border, Afghan residents and officials told AFP on Sunday, with the fighting occurring alongside multiple strikes.

Months of cross-border clashes have flared since Thursday when Afghanistan launched an offensive along the frontier, AFP reported, with Pakistani forces responding on the border and from the air.

In Kabul, AFP journalists heard an explosion followed by successive gunfire. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said “anti-aircraft fire is being directed at Pakistani aircraft.”

Pakistan acknowledged bombing key cities Friday, including Kabul and Kandahar, home to Afghanistan’s supreme leader, but has not commented on Sunday’s strikes.

A resident in Kabul described a dawn raid as “very strong, which shook the area,” adding there was smoke and fire north of the airport and calling it “very terrifying.”

Provincial spokesman Fazl ul Rahim Maskin Yar said Pakistani jets “attempted to bomb” a base, but there were no casualties or damage.

Residents in multiple areas of Khost province told AFP that the two sides engaged in clashes overnight. A military unit spokesman reported heavy fighting in neighboring Paktia province.

At the Torkham border crossing, a key gateway for Afghans returning from Pakistan, fighting was reported by the Nangarhar province information department.

The Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said Pakistani fire had killed 36 civilians across multiple provinces since Thursday. Islamabad has not commented on that claim.

Drones were heard in Khost province, while in Jalalabad an AFP photographer saw a jet overhead. Security forces increased their presence in Kabul on Sunday, with more checkpoints in the city center.

On Saturday, residents who fled their homes near the frontier called for an end to the fighting. “We demand from the international community and the whole world to put pressure on Pakistan to stop the war,” said a 46-year-old displaced resident, Javed, who gave only one name.

Diplomatic efforts have failed to secure a truce, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar among those engaged in efforts to halt the fighting.

Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, a charge the Taliban government rejects. Many attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021, when Taliban authorities returned to power in Kabul.

The latest violence is the worst since October, when fighting killed more than 70 people on both sides and led to the closure of land borders between the neighbors.