KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Taliban’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires in Kabul and lodged a formal protest over Pakistani airstrikes on three provinces of Afghanistan, as tensions between the neighbors escalate following a series of cross-border attacks.
In a statement on Thursday, the ministry said that it handed Pakistan’s diplomat a letter of protest and strongly condemned strikes on Kandahar, Khost and Paktia early Thursday.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns these attacks,” the statement said. “It considers it a clear violation of Afghanistan’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and in conflict with Islamic, international, humanitarian, and neighborly principles.”
The Taliban said it rejected claims that Afghanistan’s territory was being used against Pakistan, saying such justifications distorted facts and sought to conceal Islamabad’s domestic failures.
Pakistan said it carried out air and drone strikes on 10 locations in Afghanistan, which it said were used to launch and store drones. Pakistani officials said the operation was in response to drone attacks allegedly launched from Afghanistan a day earlier.
The Taliban said at least four civilians were killed in Thursday’s strikes. It did not disclose the locations targeted. Local sources told KabulNow that the strikes hit a weapons depot in Kandahar, the headquarters of the Taliban’s 203 Mansouri Corps in Paktia, and a Taliban military facility and Gulan Camp in Khost’s Gurbuz district.
On Friday, the Taliban’s 205th Al-Badr Corps in Kandahar announced that it had attacked and destroyed Pakistani border posts near Spin Boldak. Pakistani officials later said their forces had repelled the assault and that several Taliban fighters were killed in the clashes.
The latest exchanges followed 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 (TTP), claimed responsibility.
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.
The latest strikes followed Pakistani airstrikes on parts of Kunar and Paktika provinces on Monday. Pakistan said those strikes killed 28 militants, while Taliban authorities and the United Nations reported three civilian deaths.
The two sides, once close allies, have seen relations deteriorate sharply since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Cross-border fighting earlier this year was followed by mediation efforts involving China, Türkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, but the latest violence has renewed tensions between the neighbors.
