Pakistani forces kill Afghan Taliban fighters in border escalation

Pakistani security forces reported an ongoing exchange of fire with Afghan fighters along the Pakistan-Afghan frontier on Friday, saying they had thwarted an "attempted Afghan aggression" in the Gulistan border area. Pakistani sources told state media that several members of the Afghan Taliban were killed during intermittent clashes and that fighting was continuing.

The ground fighting came after Pakistan said it carried out aerial and drone strikes on 10 locations inside Afghanistan earlier in the week. Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the strikes targeted "terrorist hideouts and support infrastructure including drone launching and storage sites" and posted footage said to show the military action. Afghanistan's government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the strikes hit Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces.

Kabul has reported casualties from the strikes. Separate statements in recent days have said three people were killed in earlier Pakistani air attacks and other accounts cited four civilian deaths in airstrikes in Afghanistan; media reports also referenced a deadly bombing at a mosque in Pakistan that killed at least 31 people. Neither Islamabad nor Kabul has provided independent or mutually agreed confirmation of all of these casualty figures.

The two countries have traded accusations in recent months, with Pakistan alleging that armed groups based in Afghanistan are staging cross-border attacks, and Afghanistan's government denying it harbours anti-Pakistan fighters and describing such incidents as Pakistan's internal problem. Taliban officials have denied that their administration launched the drones Pakistan cited as justification for its strikes.

Analysts and diplomats have warned the escalation endangers ongoing mediation efforts by China, Turkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which have been working to broker a more stable relationship between the neighbouring states. The recent exchanges represent the worst fighting between the two since tensions heightened earlier in the year and increase the prospect of further retaliatory actions and civilian harm.