Pakistan's military, backed by artillery and air power, struck more military installations deep inside Afghanistan overnight and into early Saturday, after Pakistan said it was in "open war" with its neighbor. Pakistan claimed more than 300 Afghan forces had been killed since fighting erupted Thursday night during a broad Afghan cross-border attack into Pakistan, reports the AP. Afghanistan rejected the figures as false. The casualty figures provided by either side couldn't be independently confirmed.
The fighting was in response to Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan last Sunday. Pakistan said it was targeting the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, or TTP. The group is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan's ruling Taliban. Afghanistan, however, said only civilians were killed in Sunday's airstrike. After the Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif declared on Friday: "Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us." Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Saturday that more than 331 Afghan forces had been killed and more than 500 others have been wounded during the ongoing military strikes in Afghanistan. Pakistan destroyed 102 Afghan posts, captured 22 others, and destroyed 163 tanks and armored vehicles at 37 locations, he said.
The Afghan government's deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said the claim of hundreds of Afghan forces killed and wounded "is untrue and we reject it." He accused Pakistan of targeting civilian areas in the provinces of Paktika, Khost, Kunar, Nangarhar, and Kandahar, as well as refugee camps in Torkham and Kandahar. Fitrat said 52 people had been killed, most women and children, and 66 others were hurt. Meanwhile, the UN said that major cities in Afghanistan were reportedly bombed Friday by the Pakistani military, marking a new escalation and raising fears for civilians already struggling under harsh Taliban rule.
Tensions have been high since October, when dozens of soldiers, civilians, and suspected militants were killed in border clashes. A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the fighting that month, but several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to produce a lasting agreement. The two sides have occasionally traded fire since then, though the ceasefire had largely held until last week, when Pakistan struck what it described as TTP hideouts. Since then, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, China, and several other nations are again attempting to defuse tensions by offering mediation. More here.
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