KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Pakistan carried out air and drone strikes on multiple targets in Afghanistan’s Kandahar, Khost and Paktia provinces early on Thursday, the Taliban confirmed, as tensions between the two neighbors continue to escalate.
In a statement on X, Taliban chief spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said at least four civilians were killed in what he described as an act of aggression. He vowed an “appropriate response.”
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan [Taliban] strongly condemns these indiscriminate and cowardly attacks,” Mujahid said, calling them a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and an act of aggression.
Mujahid did not specify the locations targeted.
Local sources in Kandahar told KabulNow that the strikes, which began around 3:30 a.m. local time, targeted and destroyed a weapons depot in the ninth district of Kandahar city. Residents reported first hearing the sound of a fighter jet, followed by a powerful explosion.
In Paktia province, a local source said Pakistani fighter jets bombed the headquarters of the Taliban’s 203 Mansouri Corps in Gardez, the provincial capital. The source added that Pakistani drones continued flying over Gardez until around 8 a.m., while Taliban forces fired at them from the ground.
In Khost, Mustaghfir Gurbaz, spokesman for the Taliban governor, said Pakistani military carried out strikes in Gurbaz district, as well as areas in the provincial capital and the Ismail Khel and Manduzai districts. He said the attacks caused no casualties.
Gurbaz did not specify whether military or civilian sites were targeted. Local sources told KabulNow, however, that the strikes hit a Taliban military facility and Gulan Camp in Gurbaz district, which houses migrants from Pakistan’s Waziristan region.
Hours after the strikes, Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced that Pakistan conducted air and drone strikes on 10 locations across Afghanistan in retaliation for drone attacks allegedly launched by the Taliban a day earlier.
“In exercise of its sovereign right to self-defence, Pakistan conducted precision aerial and drone strikes against 10 locations in Afghanistan used for launching and storing these drones,” Tarar said. “The strikes were deliberate, precise, calibrated and proportionate and strictly limited to identified military objectives directly linked to the attempted attacks against Pakistan.”
Tarar accused the Taliban of failing to dismantle militant groups that Pakistan says operate from Afghan territory. He called on Taliban authorities to end hostile activity against Pakistan and take “effective, concrete, verifiable and sustained action” against such groups. “Pakistan does not seek escalation and remains committed to regional peace, dialogue and constructive engagement,” he said, while warning that further action by the Taliban would draw a “firm and resolute response.”
The strikes followed Pakistani airstrikes on Monday in Kunar and Paktika provinces. Pakistan said those strikes targeted militant hideouts and killed 28 militants, while UNAMA confirmed that three civilians — a man, a woman and a girl — were killed and four others wounded in Kunar.
The latest incidents came after a suicide bombing and gun battle last Friday at a police headquarters in Kohat, Pakistan, near the Afghan border. At least 31 people, including 16 police officers, were killed and more than 100 wounded. The group Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, linked to the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, claimed responsibility. Islamabad says the group operates from Afghanistan.
Relations between the Taliban and Pakistan, once close allies, have deteriorated sharply since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. The latest incidents threaten to end months of relative calm that followed the two sides’ worst clashes in years in February, when Pakistan declared itself in an “open war” with Afghanistan amid a surge in militant attacks on civilians and security forces.
UNAMA has documented more than 1,100 civilian deaths and injuries resulting from cross-border armed violence in Afghanistan so far in 2026. Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of sheltering groups that launch attacks inside Pakistan, particularly the TTP and Baloch separatists. The Taliban rejects the claims, saying militancy in Pakistan is an internal matter.
Despite mediation efforts by countries including China, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, the two sides have yet to reach an agreement to end the hostilities.
