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KABUL – More than 12 civilians were killed and at least 100 others wounded in cross-border attacks by Pakistani forces early Wednesday, the Afghan Taliban said, reigniting hostilities that had briefly subsided after a deadly weekend of fighting. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid claimed on X that Pakistani air and ground forces targeted Afghan territory along the contested border, accusing Islamabad of violating Afghan sovereignty.
Mujahid said Taliban fighters responded by killing “a large number of Pakistani soldiers,” capturing several posts, weapons, and tanks, and destroying military installations. He warned that continued aggression would meet with “strong retaliation” from the Taliban government.
Pakistani officials, meanwhile, accused the Taliban of initiating the assault on a security post near Chaman in Balochistan, injuring four civilians on their side. “Taliban forces attacked a Pakistani post near Chaman,” regional administrator Habib Ullah Bangulzai told Reuters, adding that the fighting continued for about five hours before Pakistani troops “repulsed” the attack.
Although skirmishes regularly erupt along the 2,600-kilometre (1,600-mile) frontier, last week’s deadly exchanges were the most serious since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. The renewed violence underscores the worsening ties between the two countries, once close allies, as Islamabad presses the Taliban to act against Pakistan-based militants allegedly operating from Afghan soil.
