Wave of strikes came after Taliban forces attacked Pakistani border troops following earlier action from Islamabad
Pakistan has bombed major cities in Afghanistan including the capital Kabul, with Islamabad’s defence minister declaring that the hostile neighbours were in a state of “open war” as a cycle of retaliatory attacks escalated further.
Witnesses in Kabul and Kandahar, the southern Afghan city, reported explosions and jets overhead until dawn, while the Taliban government said later that Pakistani surveillance aircraft were still flying over Afghanistan.
The wave of attacks came after Afghan forces attacked Pakistani border troops on Thursday night following earlier airstrikes by Islamabad.
The operation was Pakistan’s most widespread bombardment of the Afghan capital and its first airstrikes on Kandahar, the southern power base of the Taliban movement, which returned to power in 2021.
