Afghanistan and Pakistan Claim Hundreds Killed in Border Conflict Described as ‘Open War’

As Afghanistan and Pakistan start counting bodies in an “open war” between the South Asian neighbors, both sides appear to be looking for an exit route. Qatar and Egypt began serving as intermediaries between the two nations on Friday following skirmishes overnight that are reported to have claimed the lives of two of Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership.The acting Taliban education minister and son-in-law of the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, was reportedly killed in a morning clash, though that was unconfirmed. Afghan officials denied that Mullah Akhundzada himself was killed in a morning attack on Kabul.Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reports that a senior Taliban leader of Tajik origin, Abdul Hasnim Khorasani, who previously called for the destruction of Pakistan, was killed.Afghanistan’s air force, such as it is, hit Pakistani military targets in airstrikes on Islamabad and other cities on Friday, Afghanistan’s Ministry of National Defense claimed. The Taliban’s spokesman said at least 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed in overnight operations and claimed to have captured two army bases and 19 posts along the disputed 1,640-mile border.Pakistan, with far superior air power, said it hit 22 military targets and killed 274 Taliban fighters. Mumbai-based news agency Firstpost reported that Pakistan announced it had lost 12 soldiers and claimed several civilian injuries. A military spokesman said Pakistani forces knocked down dozens of “rudimentary” drones attempting to hit the cities of Abbottabad, Swabi, and Nowshera located in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, along the northwest border. The skirmishes are the most serious between the two nations since a ceasefire was declared in October following a territorial dust-up. Pakistan forces accuse Afghanistan of supporting the Pakistani Taliban, Tehreek-e-Taliban, and giving safe haven to separatist insurgents seeking to break away the southwestern Balochistan region from Pakistan. Kabul, for its part, accuses Islamabad of harboring its enemy, the Islamic State. A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Friday the Taliban is acting in self defense.“We have good relations with India,” Pakistan’s mortal enemy with which it has fought three wars, “but it is never against Pakistan,” he added. Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, declared Thursday that the two nations were now in an “open war,” and warned Afghanistan not to tussle with its better armed neighbor. “After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was expected that there would be peace in Afghanistan and that the Taliban would focus on the interests of the Afghan people and peace in the region,” Mr. Asif posted on X.“However, the Taliban turned Afghanistan into a colony of India. They gathered all the terrorists of the world in Afghanistan and began exporting terrorism,” he added, describing Afghanistan’s government as a proxy for India even though millions of Afghans have lived in Pakistan for the last five decades. “Our cup of patience has overflowed. Now it is open war between us and you.”On Friday, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said any additional attacks would be met with “a measured, decisive, and befitting response.”Russia and the United Kingdom have joined Qatar and Egypt in calling for a calming of tensions. Britain’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, urged “both sides to take immediate steps toward de‑escalation, avoid further harm to civilians, and re‑engage in mediated dialogue.”America, sitting this one out, issued a travel warning to the region. “We are aware of the recent escalation in tensions and outbreak of fighting between the Taliban and Pakistan, and we continue to monitor the situation closely,” the U.S. Mission to Afghanistan, stationed in Doha, Qatar, said in a morning X post.The Afghan-Pakistan dispute is not on the list of eight conflicts that President Trump claims to have ended. He has said that this may be his next, though the White House has not expressed interest in the region.“That’s an easy one for me to solve if I have to solve it. In the meantime, I have to run the U.S.A., but I love solving wars,” Mr. Trump said in October.

Afghanistan and Pakistan Claim Hundreds Killed in Border Conflict Described as ‘Open War’

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