Pakistan’s defence minister has said the country is in “open war” with Afghanistan, after Islamabad launched airstrikes on Kabul as part of a wave of attacks across the country.
“Our patience has now run out,” said Khawaja Muhammad Asif following the attacks.
The strikes came after the Afghan Taliban announced a major offensive against Pakistani military posts near the border on Thursday night.
The latest attacks follow months of clashes between the two neighbouring nations, despite agreeing to a fragile ceasefire in October.
Last year’s negotiations failed to reach a broader agreement for a complete end to hostilities, with both side blaming each other for not engaging seriously with talks.
On Thursday the Taliban military said a “retaliatory operation” had been launched at around 20:00 local time (15:30 GMT).
Pakistan quickly retaliated, saying the Taliban had “miscalculated and opened unprovoked fire on multiple locations” across the border in its north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, which had been met with an “immediate and effective response” by Islamabad’s security forces.
It then launched a series of bombing raids on Afghanistan in the early hours of Friday morning, striking targets in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktika in response to what they called “unprovoked Afghan attacks”.
By Anthony Solly
