Pakistan, Afghanistan ‘war’ LIVE: Pakistan launched Operation Ghazab lil-Haq on Friday and carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday in retaliation to Afghanistan’s “cross-border attack on Pakistan.”
This came after 55 Pakistani soldiers were reportedly killed in retaliatory operations carried out along the Durand Line on Thursday.
Two senior Pakistani security officials told The Associated Press that Pakistan’s military carried out airstrikes targeting what they described as Afghan military facilities in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia provinces, allegedly destroying two brigade bases.
Pakistan’s information ministry said Afghan Taliban opened “unprovoked firing” on multiple locations along the border in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s in 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 that made a Qatar-mediated ceasefire appear increasingly shaky.
In a press release, Afghanistan’s ministry said the action was launched at 8:00 PM on the 9th of Ramadan, corresponding to February 26, in response to what it described as a violation of Afghan territory by Pakistani military forces days earlier.
The ministry said that Afghan forces targeted Pakistani military posts in the eastern and southeastern directions along the Durand Line, near the provinces of Paktika, Paktia, Khost, Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan.
Stay tuned to this LIVE blog on all the latest updates in Pakistan and Afghanistan clashes.
