Clashes along Durand Line leave dozens dead amid Taliban-Pakistan tensions

Kabul/Islamabad: The Pakistani army has suffered heavy losses in the Taliban attack. The Taliban opened heavy fire along the Durand Line, prompting the Pakistan Air Force to launch airstrikes in several locations across Afghanistan. Afghan Taliban officials say they attacked Pakistani military positions along their border in response to last week's Pakistani air strikes. Pakistan, however, claimed its army retaliated. The Afghan Military Corps' media office said in a statement that late Thursday night, "heavy clashes erupted in Nangarhar and Paktia provinces in response to recent airstrikes by the Pakistani army."

Meanwhile, CNN-News18, quoting security sources, reported that Afghan Taliban forces launched coordinated attacks using artillery and infantry against Pakistani checkpoints in the Maro Sar and Shahkot Sar areas near the Zakha Khel market, causing heavy losses for Pakistan. At least nine Pakistani soldiers are believed to have been seriously injured in the Afghan attack on the security checkpoint. Security sources predict that the fighting could escalate. Taliban spokesman Mujahid said that Afghan forces have captured at least 15 Pakistani checkpoints in Goshta, Nangarhar, and Kunar provinces.

Face-to-face fighting in several locations in Pakistan:

The fighting between the Taliban and Pakistan began after the Pakistani army launched major attacks on Afghan Taliban checkpoints along the Durand Line earlier this week, causing significant losses on both sides. Sources confirmed that at least 28 TTP fighters were killed in these attacks in eastern and southeastern Afghanistan. Meanwhile, according to the latest reports, heavy firing with heavy weapons is continuing in Mohmand (Torkhel and Gursal), Chitral (Arandu), and parts of Kurram district along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Sources said that people from Kurram are also participating in Pakistan's retaliatory operations against the Afghan Taliban.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has stated that it has taken "immediate" action against its neighbor Afghanistan after it launched an "unprovoked" attack. Islamabad's Information Ministry said on X that Afghanistan "opened unprovoked firing" at several locations across the border in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It added that "an immediate and effective response is being given."

Fighting continues in various areas along the Durand Line

A spokesman for the Afghan Army's 201st Corps, Khalid bin Walid, said that clashes with Afghan Border Security Forces have begun and are continuing in the eastern provinces in response to the Pakistani military's airstrikes. Afghan forces have also launched retaliatory attacks on Pakistani militia posts in various areas along the Durand Line in Kunar and Nangarhar provinces. The surge in violence follows a series of Pakistani airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, prompting retaliatory fire from Afghan Taliban fighters in the Tirah, Torkham, and Waziristan sectors.