Islamabad hits Kandahar facility after Taliban drones strike civilian areas and military sites as conflict intensifies.
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Published On 14 Mar 202614 Mar 2026
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Updated: 21 minutes agoUpdated: 21 minutes ago
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Pakistan says its forces launched new strikes overnight inside Afghanistan that “successfully” targeted military installations and “terrorist hideouts” as tensions between the South Asian neighbours mount.
State-run Pakistan Television on Sunday said the military “effectively” destroyed technical support infrastructure and an equipment storage facility in southern Kandahar province, which were being used “by Afghan Taliban and terrorists against innocent Pakistani civilians”.
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In another strike, Pakistani forces hit a tunnel in Kandahar that housed technical equipment of the Afghan Taliban and “Fitna al-Khawarij”, a term Islamabad uses to designate the Pakistani Taliban armed group.
The military said its operation would continue until the Taliban government in Afghanistan addressed Pakistan’s core security concerns.
Local residents in Kandahar told AFP news agency they saw jet planes flying over the city and heard explosions during the night.
“Military planes flew over the mountain where there is a military facility, and an explosion followed,” one said, adding flames could be seen.
An air strike was also heard in Spin Boldak, southeast of Kandahar, residents said, while authorities in the eastern border province of Khost said there were clashes on Saturday night.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP that the Pakistani strikes caused some damage to a drug rehabilitation centre and an empty container in Kandahar.
“The places they [Pakistani military] are talking about are far away from these two places,” he added.
The strikes came after Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned Afghanistan’s drone attacks in three locations across Pakistan on Friday night, warning Kabul it had “crossed a red line by attempting to target our civilians”.
Pakistan’s military said the drones, described as locally produced and rudimentary, were intercepted before reaching their targets, though falling debris wounded two children in Quetta and civilians in Kohat and Rawalpindi, where the Pakistani military is headquartered.
Islamabad said the Kandahar facility had been used both to launch the drone attacks and as a base for cross-border rebel activity.
The latest exchange of fire marks the sharpest single escalation yet in a conflict that has been building since late February, when Pakistan launched military operations against what it said were Pakistan Taliban fighters sheltering on Afghan soil.
Islamabad also accuses Kabul of harbouring fighters from the ISIL (ISIS) group’s Khorasan province affiliate. The Taliban government denies both charges.
Some 99 people from both sides, including 13 soldiers and one civilian in Pakistan, and 13 soldiers and 72 civilians in Afghanistan, have been killed in the clashes.
According to the United Nations data, 185 civilian casualties, including 56 deaths from indirect fire and aerial attacks, were reported in Afghanistan between February 26 and March 5. The UN refugee agency says about 115,000 people have been forced from their homes.
The crisis is unfolding as the wider region remains engulfed by the United States-Israeli war with Iran, which began just two days after the Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes escalated.
In a related development, Pakistan on Sunday rejected the Indian Ministry of External Affairs’ remarks on Islamabad’s “legitimate, targeted and precise actions against terrorist hideouts and support bases” inside Afghanistan.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir Andrabi, in a statement, said India’s “active support and sponsorship of terrorist groups operating from Afghan soil are well known”.
“Therefore, India’s frustration at the destruction of its terrorist franchise in Afghanistan, as reflected in such statements, is quite understandable,” he added.
India on Saturday condemned Pakistani air strikes on Afghan territory, reiterating that Afghanistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity “should be fully respected”.