What happened
Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Friday that its air force had struck hideouts of Islamist militants in Pakistan’s Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces overnight, a claim Pakistan’s information ministry rejected as “false, as usual”, according to Arab News Pakistan.
In a post on X, the Afghan defence ministry said the targets in the two border provinces had been used to plan and organise attacks against Afghanistan, and that “all pre-designated high-value targets were successfully struck”. It did not specify how the operation was carried out.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting responded that the Afghan Taliban regime had claimed to have targeted alleged Daesh Khorasan camps in the border areas using “rudimentary drones”, and that the claims did not reflect events on the ground, Dawn reported. It said one such drone entered Pakistani airspace near Shinko in Khyber district and was “immediately identified and neutralised by the alert air defence system of the Pakistan Air Force”, Radio Pakistan reported.
Why it matters
The exchange is the latest in a months-long confrontation that escalated sharply after late February 2026, when Pakistan’s defence minister declared “open war” on Afghanistan, and has killed hundreds on both sides. Islamabad accuses Kabul of sheltering armed groups, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, that carry out attacks in Pakistan’s northwest and Balochistan. Kabul denies the allegation and says militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem.
The claims came about a week after Pakistan said its own “calibrated strikes” against militant hideouts along the Afghan border had killed 26 militants. The Afghan Taliban administration said those Pakistani strikes killed at least 13 people, including 11 children, and injured 14. Both sides’ casualty and target claims could not be independently verified.
