By IO Digest Desk
Fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan widened sharply on the event date 2026-03-01, with Afghan residents and officials describing air strikes, border clashes and anti-aircraft fire over Kabul, according to the supplied evidence. The source says the latest violence followed months of tension that intensified after Afghanistan launched a frontier offensive on Thursday, prompting Pakistani retaliation on the border and from the air.
One of the most sensitive sites mentioned in the evidence was Bagram, the former US air base north of Kabul. Residents said air strikes hit the area before dawn, describing a blast strong enough to shake the surrounding district. One witness said smoke and fire could be seen to the north of the airport, calling the attack terrifying. A provincial spokesman said Pakistani jets attempted to bomb the base but that there were no casualties or damage there.
In the capital, AFP journalists heard an explosion followed by repeated gunfire. Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said anti-aircraft fire was being directed at Pakistani aircraft. The source also reported a visibly heavier security presence in Kabul, including more checkpoints in the city center. Elsewhere, an AFP journalist heard drones in Khost province, and a photographer in Jalalabad saw a jet overhead, suggesting the conflict was stretching across multiple parts of the country rather than remaining confined to a single border sector.
Afghan officials said civilians were bearing the cost. The government's deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said Pakistani fire had killed 36 civilians across multiple provinces since Thursday. Earlier in the report, the evidence says three people were killed overnight in drone strikes and shelling. Pakistan acknowledged bombing key Afghan cities on Friday, including Kabul and Kandahar, but had not commented on the Sunday strikes detailed in the source.
On the ground, residents in Khost and Nangarhar described sporadic fighting through Sunday afternoon. Overnight combat was also reported at the Torkham border crossing, a major route for Afghans returning from Pakistan, and a military spokesman described heavy fighting in Paktia province. Those accounts reinforce the source's description of the current escalation as the worst violence since clashes in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.
Each side also issued major battlefield claims that could not be independently verified. Pakistan's information minister said 46 locations in Afghanistan had been struck and claimed 415 Afghan soldiers had been killed since operations began. Afghan officials responded by saying more than 80 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 military posts captured. The source explicitly notes that casualty claims from both governments are difficult to verify independently.
Diplomatic efforts by countries including Saudi Arabia and Qatar had failed to secure a truce by the time of the report. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups, especially Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, while the Taliban government rejects that charge. For the event dated 2026-03-01, the verified picture in the evidence is of a rapidly expanding confrontation that reached Bagram and Kabul, increased civilian risk, and showed little immediate sign of being contained.
