Afghan-Pakistan Border Clashes Leave Hundreds Dead, Wounded

(MENAFN) Afghan forces have reportedly suffered close to 1,000 casualties in the latest escalation along the Pakistan border, according to statements from Islamabad.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar stated that at least 415 Taliban fighters and allied militants were killed and more than 580 wounded in recent airstrikes and ground clashes since Thursday. He also claimed that 182 Afghan checkpoints were destroyed, alongside 185 tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery, with strikes hitting 46 locations nationwide, according to reports shared on X.

The Afghan government has not confirmed these figures. Afghan spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat reported that three days of border fighting resulted in 78 deaths, including 12 Pakistani soldiers and one civilian, and 13 Afghan soldiers alongside 52 Afghan civilians, most of them women and children. Casualties were reported in Paktika, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, and Kandahar provinces.

Neither side’s casualty numbers could be independently verified.

The clashes began after Afghan Taliban forces fired on Pakistani positions, killing two soldiers, prompting Pakistan to launch heavy artillery and airstrikes early on Friday. Kabul described the Pakistani response as “retaliatory operations” following earlier strikes, while Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif called the escalation an “open war,” accusing the Taliban of “exporting terrorism.”

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have steadily deteriorated since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. Border skirmishes have grown more frequent, with tensions peaking in October 2025 when the Pakistani military seized 19 Afghan border posts during confrontations with Taliban forces.

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