KABUL — At least 19 Taliban fighters were killed in Pakistani drone strikes in Afghanistan’s southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, local sources said Monday, amid escalating cross-border clashes that have brought relations between the Taliban and Islamabad to one of their lowest points in years.
The Pakistani drone on Sunday targeted a Taliban unit in Kandahar’s Spin Boldak district, killing 11 fighters, nine of them from Helmand’s Musa Qala district, sources said. Their bodies were transferred to the provincial hospital in Lashkar Gah. Among the dead was a local Taliban commander identified as Haji Nusrat.
Eight other Taliban members were killed in simultaneous airstrikes in Helmand’s Bahramcha district, the sources added. Their bodies were taken to Nad Ali, Sangin, and Nahr-e-Saraj districts.
Taliban officials have not yet confirmed the casualties.
The latest attacks came after days of intense fighting that began Saturday night, when the Taliban said its forces launched retaliatory strikes on Pakistani border positions.
The regime accused Pakistan of violating Afghanistan’s airspace and conducting aerial bombardments on Paktika province and parts of Kabul earlier in the week. Taliban authorities said those airstrikes targeted residential areas and Taliban positions near the capital.
In response, Taliban’s Ministry of Defense said its forces carried out “retaliatory operations” along the Durand Line, striking multiple Pakistani military posts in the border provinces of Khost, Kunar, and Kandahar.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed 58 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 25 border posts captured during the overnight counterattack, though Islamabad has not confirmed those figures.
Pakistan, in turn, said its military destroyed several Taliban positions and accused the group of harboring militants from the banned Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad blames for a surge in deadly attacks inside Pakistan. The Taliban has repeatedly denied providing safe haven to the TTP and has accused Pakistan of using airstrikes to pressure the ruling group.
The hostilities have further strained relations between the two sides, which have deteriorated sharply since Pakistan began deporting nearly one million of Afghan refugees since late 2023 and tightening its border controls. Mutual distrust has also worsened as both sides’ trade accusations of cross-border militancy and interference.
Regional powers including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Iran have called for restraint and offered to mediate. Qatar and Saudi Arabia reportedly persuaded both sides to pause fighting on Sunday, though Taliban officials later claimed Pakistani attacks resumed the following morning.
The flare-up comes as Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi is visiting India, the first such visit by a senior Taliban official since 2021, where he has sought to project the Taliban as a responsible regional actor. Muttaqi told reporters in New Delhi that “foreign interference” only unites Afghans, and that Afghanistan would defend its sovereignty if attacked.
