Pakistan in ‘open war’ with Afghanistan, defense minister says

Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged cross-border attacks overnight in a dramatic escalation of tensions that led Pakistan’s defense minister to say on Friday that the two countries are in a state of “open war.”

Afghanistan launched a cross-border attack on Pakistan late Thursday, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday. Pakistan then carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, saying it targeted military installations.

“We have targeted important military targets in Pakistan, sending a message that our hands can reach their throats and that we will respond to every evil act of Pakistan,” Afghan government spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in televised comments from Kandahar Friday. “Pakistan has never sought to resolve problems through dialogue.”

After the Afghan strikes, Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said in a post on X: “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”

Asif said Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2021 and expected the Taliban, which seized power in the country, to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability.

Instead, he said the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India,” with which Pakistan has periodically engaged in wars, clashes and skirmishes since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947. India’s ties with Afghanistan have improved recently, with offers of enhanced bilateral trade, to the annoyance of Islamabad.

Tensions have been high for months, with border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that then stage attacks across the border and also of allying with its archrival India.

A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the fighting, although the two sides still occasionally trade fire. Several rounds of peace talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a lasting agreement.

Afghan authorities in the eastern Nangarhar province said fighting was ongoing in the Torkham border area Friday morning. The province’s information directorate said Pakistani mortar fire hit civilian areas in Torkham, including a refugee camp which had been evacuated overnight. In response, Afghanistan was targeting Pakistani army posts across the border, it said.

Asif accused Afghanistan of “exporting terrorism.” Islamabad frequently levies the allegation at its western neighbor as militant violence has surged in Pakistan, accusing Afghanistan of supporting the Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, and outlawed Baloch separatist groups.

Taliban fighters man an armed pickup truck at the Afghan side of the Ghulam Khan crossing with Pakistan in Khost province, Afghanistan, Feb. 27, 2026. (Saifullah Zahir/AP)

Pakistan accuses the TTP — which is separate from but closely allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban — of operating from inside Afghanistan. Both the group and Kabul deny that charge.

“Pakistan’s internal conflict is a purely domestic issue and is not a new one,” Mujahid said Friday, noting the TTP had been active for nearly two decades.

Pakistan has also frequently accused neighboring India of backing the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army and the Pakistani Taliban, allegations New Delhi denies.

Afghanistan said Thursday’s cross-border attack was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday.

The governments have issued sharply differing casualty claims.

Pakistan’s army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistani air and ground operations killed at least 274 members of Afghan forces and affiliated militants and wounded more than 400, while 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 others were wounded. One Pakistani soldier was missing in action.

Mujahid rejected the claims of the high number of Afghan casualties as “false.” He said 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed, with the bodies of 23 of them taken to Afghanistan.

He also said “many” Pakistani soldiers were captured. Thirteen Afghan soldiers had been killed, he said, and another 22 wounded, while 13 civilians were also wounded. A religious school in Paktika province was bombed on Friday morning, he added, saying information on potential casualties there was not yet available.

The casualty claims of either side could not be independently verified.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Pakistan’s anti-drone systems shot down several small drones over the northwestern cities of Abbottabad, Swabi, and Nowshera Friday.

He said the drones appeared to be part of a failed attack by the Pakistani Taliban, and there were no casualties. Tarar claimed the drone attacks “once again exposed direct linkages between the Afghan Taliban regime and terrorism in Pakistan.”

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held separate phone calls with his Pakistani, Afghan, Qatari and Saudi counterparts on Friday to discuss the conflict, a Turkish official said, without providing details on the talks. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.

In October, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had facilitated talks between the sides.

On Friday, Mujahid, the Afghan government spokesman, said his country had “always emphasized a peaceful solution, and we still want to resolve the problem through dialogue.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres urged both sides to protect civilians as required under international law and “to continue to seek to resolve any differences through diplomacy,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.

Russia called for an immediate halt to the fighting and for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, Russian diplomat Zamir Kabulov told news agency RIA Novosti.

Kabulov, who is President Vladimir Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan, said that Moscow would consider mediating between the two countries if asked, according to RIA Novosti.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi urged Pakistan and Afghanistan to resolve their differences through dialogue during the holy month of Ramadan. He also said that Tehran was ready to assist in facilitating dialogue.

Pakistani authorities said that dozens of Afghan refugees in the Torkham border area had been relocated to safer places.

Pakistan launched a sweeping crackdown in October 2023 to expel migrants without documents, urging those in the country to leave of their own accord to avoid arrest and forcibly expelling others. Iran also began a crackdown on migrants at around the same time.

Since then, millions have crossed the border into Afghanistan, including people who were born in Pakistan decades ago and had built lives and created businesses there.

In 2025, 2.9 million people returned to Afghanistan, the U.N. refugee agency has said, with nearly 80,000 having returned so far this year.

巴基斯坦和阿富汗一夜之间发生跨境袭击，紧张局势急剧升级，导致巴基斯坦国防部长周五表示，两国正处于“公开战争”状态。

阿富汗周四晚间对巴基斯坦发动跨境袭击，称此举是对巴基斯坦周日对阿富汗边境地区发动致命空袭的报复。巴基斯坦随后于周五清晨对喀布尔及阿富汗其他两个省份发动空袭，称其目标是军事设施。

阿富汗政府发言人扎比乌拉·穆贾希德周五在坎大哈发表电视讲话时表示：“我们袭击了巴基斯坦境内的重要军事目标，意在表明我们有能力扼住他们的咽喉，我们将对巴基斯坦的每一项罪恶行径都予以回击。巴基斯坦从未寻求通过对话解决问题。”

阿富汗发动空袭后，巴基斯坦国防部长霍贾·穆罕默德·阿西夫在X网站上发帖称：“我们的耐心已经耗尽。现在我们之间已经爆发公开战争。”

阿西夫表示，巴基斯坦曾希望北约部队在 2021 年撤出阿富汗后实现和平，并期望夺取该国政权的塔利班能够专注于阿富汗人民的福祉和地区稳定。

相反，他表示塔利班已将阿富汗“变成了印度的殖民地”，而自1947年摆脱英国殖民统治获得独立以来，巴基斯坦与印度之间就一直不时发生战争、冲突和小规模冲突。近年来，印度与阿富汗的关系有所改善，并提出加强双边贸易，这令伊斯兰堡感到不满。

数月来，两国局势持续紧张。10月份的边境冲突造成数十名士兵、平民和疑似武装分子丧生。巴基斯坦指责阿富汗塔利班政府窝藏武装组织，这些组织随后越境发动袭击，并指责阿富汗政府与其宿敌印度结盟。

在卡塔尔的斡旋下，停火协议结束了战斗，但双方仍不时交火。11月在伊斯坦布尔举行的几轮和平谈判未能达成持久协议。

阿富汗东部楠格哈尔省当局周五上午表示，托尔哈姆边境地区战斗仍在继续。该省新闻局称，巴基斯坦迫击炮袭击了托尔哈姆的平民区，其中包括一个连夜疏散的难民营。作为回应，阿富汗方面正在对边境另一侧的巴基斯坦军队哨所进行打击。

阿西夫指责阿富汗“输出恐怖主义”。随着巴基斯坦境内武装暴力事件激增，伊斯兰堡经常对其西部邻国提出这一指控，指责阿富汗支持巴基斯坦塔利班（TTP）和被取缔的俾路支分离主义组织。

2026年2月27日，在阿富汗霍斯特省古拉姆汗过境点（阿富汗与巴基斯坦接壤）阿富汗一侧，塔利班武装分子操控着一辆武装皮卡。（Saifullah Zahir/AP）

巴基斯坦指责巴基斯坦塔利班运动（TTP）——该组织与阿富汗塔利班关系密切，但彼此独立——在阿富汗境内活动。该组织和喀布尔方面均否认了这一指控。

穆贾希德周五表示：“巴基斯坦的内部冲突纯粹是国内问题，而且并非新问题。”他指出，巴基斯坦塔利班运动已经活跃了近二十年。

巴基斯坦还经常指责邻国印度支持被取缔的俾路支解放军和巴基斯坦塔利班，但新德里否认了这些指控。

阿富汗方面表示，周四发生的跨境袭击是对巴基斯坦周日对阿富汗边境地区发动致命空袭的报复。

各国政府提出的伤亡赔偿要求截然不同。

巴基斯坦陆军发言人艾哈迈德·谢里夫·乔杜里中将表示，巴基斯坦的空袭和地面行动造成至少274名阿富汗部队成员及其附属武装分子死亡，400多人受伤，而巴基斯坦方面有12名士兵阵亡，27人受伤，另有1名巴基斯坦士兵失踪。

穆贾希德驳斥了阿富汗伤亡人数众多的说法，称其“不实”。他表示，共有55名巴基斯坦士兵阵亡，其中23人的遗体已被运回阿富汗。

他还表示，有“许多”巴基斯坦士兵被俘。他说，13名阿富汗士兵丧生，另有22人受伤，还有13名平民受伤。他补充说，帕克蒂卡省一所宗教学校周五上午遭到炸弹袭击，目前尚无有关伤亡情况的信息。

双方的伤亡声明均无法得到独立核实。

巴基斯坦新闻部长阿塔乌拉·塔拉尔表示，巴基斯坦的反无人机系统周五在西北部城市阿伯塔巴德、斯瓦比和瑙谢拉上空击落了几架小型无人机。

他说，这些无人机似乎是巴基斯坦塔利班一次失败的袭击的一部分，没有造成人员伤亡。塔拉尔声称，无人机袭击“再次暴露了阿富汗塔利班政权与巴基斯坦恐怖主义之间的直接联系”。

一位土耳其官员表示，土耳其外交部长哈坎·菲丹周五分别与巴基斯坦、阿富汗、卡塔尔和沙特阿拉伯的外长通电话，讨论了冲突问题。该官员未透露会谈细节。根据政府政策，这位官员要求匿名。

10月份，土耳其、卡塔尔和沙特阿拉伯促成了双方的会谈。

周五，阿富汗政府发言人穆贾希德表示，阿富汗“一直强调和平解决，我们仍然希望通过对话解决问题”。

联合国秘书长安东尼奥·古特雷斯敦促双方按照国际法的要求保护平民，并“继续寻求通过外交途径解决任何分歧”，联合国发言人斯特凡·杜加里克在一份声明中表示。

俄罗斯外交官扎米尔·卡布洛夫告诉俄新社，俄罗斯呼吁立即停止战斗，并通过外交途径解决冲突。

据俄罗斯新闻社报道，俄罗斯总统弗拉基米尔·普京的阿富汗问题特使卡布洛夫表示，如果被要求，莫斯科将考虑在两国之间进行调解。

伊朗外交部长阿巴斯·阿拉格奇敦促巴基斯坦和阿富汗在斋月期间通过对话解决分歧。他还表示，德黑兰愿为促成对话提供协助。

巴基斯坦当局表示，托尔哈姆边境地区的数十名阿富汗难民已被转移到更安全的地方。

2023年10月，巴基斯坦发起了一场大规模的打击行动，驱逐无证移民，敦促境内人员自行离境以避免被捕，并强制驱逐其他人员。伊朗也几乎在同一时间开始对移民进行打击。

自那时以来，数百万人越过边境进入阿富汗，其中包括几十年前出生在巴基斯坦并在那里建立生活和创业的人。

联合国难民署表示，到 2025 年，将有 290 万人返回阿富汗，而今年迄今为止已有近 8 万人返回。