Afghanistan launched air strikes on targets inside Pakistan on Thursday night, the Afghan defence ministry announced Friday, in what Al Jazeera reported as the latest blow to a ceasefire between the two neighboring countries.
The ministry said the strikes targeted sites in Pakistan's Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, both of which share a border with Afghanistan. It described the locations as bases "allegedly used in cooperation with certain hostile intelligence circles to plan and organise attacks against Afghanistan," a reference widely understood to mean Pakistani intelligence.
Kabul called the sites hideouts used by armed groups but did not specify how the strikes were carried out. Afghanistan has no fighter jets but is known to possess at least six aircraft and 23 helicopters, according to data from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. The Taliban forces are also known to have drones that have been used in previous fighting with Pakistan.
Pakistan's Information Ministry rejected Kabul's account, according to an unverified report by Reuters.
The strike is the first major offensive action claimed by Kabul in months. Hostilities between the two countries have broken out several times in recent months, killing hundreds of people. A fragile ceasefire reached in March collapsed after both sides accused each other of violations. Mediation efforts led by China have since failed to produce a lasting agreement.
Relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan have been strained since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Pakistan has regularly accused Kabul of sheltering armed groups, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, that carry out attacks inside Pakistan. The Afghan government has rejected those accusations and maintained the issue is Pakistan's internal problem.
Fighting escalated sharply in late February after Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack in retaliation for Pakistani air raids. The United Nations reported in May that cross-border fighting had killed at least 372 Afghan civilians. No immediate casualty figures were released in connection with Thursday's strikes.
