KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – At least 146 civilians, including women and children, have been killed or injured in Afghanistan since the start of cross-border clashes between Taliban and Pakistani forces last week, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Tuesday.
In its statement posted on X, UNAMA said the figures, recorded from February 26 to March 2, include 42 deaths and 104 injuries. The mission added that the numbers are preliminary, as ongoing fighting and airstrikes make accurate reporting difficult.
Civilian casualties were caused by indirect fire during cross-border clashes in Paktia, Paktika, Nangarhar, Kunar, and Khost provinces, as well as by airstrikes in Paktika and Nangarhar, UNAMA said.
The conflict has displaced around 16,400 households, according to data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cited by UNAMA. Many of the displaced families were already affected by last year’s earthquake in the border region.
The clashes have also disrupted humanitarian operations in the border region. UNAMA said that aid agencies have reduced operations in affected areas, leaving vulnerable families, including returnees, without assistance. Medical and humanitarian facilities, including an emergency hospital at the Torkham border post and a transit center run by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), have sustained damage.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has suspended its operations in the affected regions, leaving an estimated 160,000 people without access to distributed food. Several provinces affected by the fighting are also experiencing critical levels of acute malnutrition.
UNAMA reiterated its calls for Pakistan and the Taliban to halt the fighting, warning that the ongoing violence is worsening Afghanistan’s already severe humanitarian crisis. The mission urged all parties to comply with international law, including international humanitarian law, and to protect civilians.
The clashes began late last Thursday after Taliban forces launched what they described as a “retaliatory operation” against Pakistani positions, following earlier Pakistani airstrikes in Nangarhar and Paktika that UNAMA previously reported killed 13 civilians, including women and children.
Pakistan has since conducted further airstrikes targeting locations in multiple provinces, including Kabul and Kandahar. Both sides have reported inflicting heavy losses on the other, but independent verification of military casualties remains impossible.
A Pakistani senior official claimed on Monday that the country’s forces had killed at least 435 Taliban fighters and wounded more than 630 since the fighting started. The Taliban has claimed to have killed dozens of Pakistani soldiers and captured border posts.
The fighting has drawn international concern, with multiple countries in the region urging restraint and calling for a diplomatic resolution. Russia, Iran, and China have offered to mediate to ease tensions between the two neighbors.
The current clashes are the latest in a series of border confrontations and Pakistani airstrikes in recent months. Similar fighting in October 2025 lasted several days, resulting in dozens of deaths on both sides before a fragile ceasefire mediated by Qatar and Turkey.
Tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban, once allies, have grown since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021. Islamabad accuses the Taliban of sheltering Pakistani Taliban (TTP) fighters and providing training and weapons for cross-border attacks. The Taliban deny the allegations.
