By Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Asif Shahzad
KABUL/ISLAMABAD, March 2 (Reuters) – Afghanistan and Pakistan said on Monday that their militaries had targeted each other’s posts across the border as their fighting entered a fifth day, fuelling instability in a region rocked by U.S.–Israeli strikes on Iran and Tehran’s retaliation.
The intensity of the clashes, however, appeared to be lower than when it began although there were no signs that the allies-turned-foes were seeking to step back and make peace.
The direct fighting between the South Asian neighbours who share a 2,600-km (1,615-mile) border is the heaviest in years.
It began when Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers launched what they called retaliatory strikes on Pakistani installations in response to Pakistan’s targetting of militants in Afghanistan.
Dozens of people were killed on both sides as Pakistan used jets to launch air-to-ground missiles at Taliban military sites and even directly targeted Afghanistan’s government for the first time over allegations it harbours militants seeking to overthrow the Islamabad government.
BAGRAM AIR BASE TARGETED
On Monday, the Taliban defence ministry said that Afghan forces targeted and destroyed a Pakistani military armoured tank on the frontier in Paktika province after it had fired shells indiscriminately toward Afghanistan.
Defence ministry spokesperson Enayatullah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had killed more than 100 enemy personnel and captured more than 25 Pakistani military posts so far.
In a statement directed at the people of Afghanistan, Khowarazmi said that “sometimes the enemy’s aircraft pass through our airspace” and Taliban fighters fire air defence weapons to repel enemy attacks.
“Do not be concerned, they are your own sons. Be confident and trust your sons,” he said, referring to the Taliban fighters.
Afghan police said late on Sunday that Pakistani jets had tried to bomb Bagram air base outside Kabul and were repelled by Russian-made ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns. There were no casualties or financial losses, they said.
Bagram air base, located north of Kabul, was the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan and once the centrepiece of U.S. and NATO military operations during the 20-year war.
NO PROGRESS ON PEACE MOVES
Pakistani security sources said that their air strikes and ground attacks were ongoing and Pakistani troops had destroyed ammunition depots in Khost and Jalalabad, as well as a drone storage site in Jalalabad, among other targets.
Pakistani forces had so far killed 435 Afghan troops, destroyed 188 posts and captured another 31 posts, Pakistani Information Minister Attaulla Tarar said in a post on X.
Pakistan had also destroyed 188 tanks, armoured vehicles and artillery guns and targeted 51 locations by air, he said.
Since the fighting began, both sides have claimed to have inflicted heavy damage on the other — figures which Reuters has been unable to verify.
Friendly countries such as Qatar last week said they were willing to mediate and end the fighting. The Afghan Taliban too had said it was willing to negotiate but there has been no movement, especially with the Gulf region getting caught in its own conflict.
MILITANCY ONLY ISSUE, PAKISTAN SAYS
The Afghan-Pakistan enmity is centred around Pakistani allegations that Afghanistan harbours Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants, which it says are waging an insurgency inside Pakistan.
Afghanistan has denied the accusation, saying it does not allow Afghan territory to be used against other countries and that Pakistan’s security challenges are an internal matter.
“Pakistan has had only one ask, and that’s that Afghan soil shouldn’t be used against Pakistan,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told diplomats at a briefing in Islamabad on Monday, in comments aired by state broadcaster PTV. “This is the only issue we have, as long as it is settled, we have no other issue with Afghanistan.”
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Writing by YP Rajesh; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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