# Pakistan says it is in “open war” with Afghanistan after strikes on Kabul and other cities
*Event date: 2026-02-27*
Pakistan says it has entered “open war” with Afghanistan after bombing targets in Kabul and other Afghan cities, turning months of worsening tension into the most serious confrontation between the neighbors in years. Al Jazeera reported that Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif described the campaign in those terms after clashes along the frontier and said Islamabad’s patience with the Taliban authorities had run out.
The reported strike footprint was unusually broad. Afghan government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said Pakistani forces hit locations in Kabul, Kandahar, Paktia and Jalalabad, while Pakistan said it was acting in response to Afghan attacks on Pakistani military positions and to militant activity linked to Afghan territory. Al Jazeera’s reporting from near the Torkham crossing also described ongoing heavy artillery fire from the Pakistani side, indicating that the escalation was not limited to one isolated air operation.
Casualty claims from both sides were extensive but contested. Pakistan’s military said 274 Taliban fighters had been killed and more than 400 injured across attacks on 22 locations, while also reporting 12 Pakistani soldiers killed, 27 injured and one missing. Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence said its own attacks killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured others, while eight Afghan soldiers were killed and 11 wounded. Al Jazeera explicitly said it could not independently verify those competing figures, so the numbers must remain attributed rather than treated as settled fact.
The Afghan side also accused Pakistan of hitting civilians. Mujahid said the strikes killed innocent citizens, including women and children, and pointed to a family home in Jalalabad and a religious school for children in Paktika. Pakistan, meanwhile, framed its offensive as a forced response to prior aggression and to attacks by armed groups that it says operate from Afghan soil. That exchange shows how far the dispute has moved from uneasy border tension toward open military confrontation and rival wartime narratives.
The two countries share a 2,611-kilometre border and have been in deep conflict since major fighting in October killed more than 70 people on both sides. The evidence packet does not establish whether outside diplomatic efforts had succeeded by the end of the reporting window. What it does establish is stark enough: Pakistan carried out strikes that reached the Afghan capital, senior officials are now publicly using the language of war, and both governments are claiming serious battlefield losses in a rapidly escalating crisis.
