Fighting between Taliban forces and Pakistan entered a sixth day early Tuesday, with both sides claiming battlefield gains and reporting airstrikes across the border, including in the southern province of Kandahar.
In a statement issued early Tuesday morning, a spokesman for the Taliban’s Defense Ministry said combat was continuing and that Pakistani forces were retreating.
“The fighting is ongoing. The enemy has lost morale and is abandoning its positions,” the spokesman said. He added that Taliban fighters had seized 10 Pakistani military posts in Kandahar province, along with weapons and other material.
He also said Taliban forces had captured a large armored outpost in a district of Kandahar and destroyed an armored tank there.
The latest statements followed reported Pakistani airstrikes late Monday, March 2, in Kandahar. Sources in the province told Amu TV that Pakistani aircraft and drones targeted two Taliban military facilities, including the 205th Atal Corps headquarters.
According to those sources, the strike on the corps was carried out by what they described as suicide drones and hit its logistics battalion in Kandahar. Pakistani aircraft also bombed a large Taliban military base in Zhari District, they said.
Sources at the targeted base, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a number of Taliban members were killed or wounded, though no precise casualty figures were available. The Taliban have not commented publicly on those strikes.
Pakistani fighter jets had previously bombed a Taliban army corps in Nangarhar, according to local accounts.
The clashes intensified Sunday night into early Monday, March 1, with airstrikes reported in Kabul and Panjshir. Residents in parts of Kabul — including the Eighth Police District, the airport road and areas of Darulaman — reported overnight strikes by Pakistani forces. Taliban have not provided details on the nature of the attacks or possible casualties.
Local media sources told Amu TV that Taliban had sought to prevent the publication of detailed information about the strikes and to limit comprehensive coverage of the events.
Residents in Panjshir reported sporadic gunfire and several explosions in Dashtak, in Rukha district, as well as in Anaba and Bazarak.
Clashes have also been reported along border areas in Khost, Paktika, Paktia and Kandahar provinces.
Mohammad Naeem Wardak, the Taliban deputy foreign minister for administrative and financial affairs, said Taliban forces had crossed the Durand Line — the disputed border between Afghanistan and Pakistan — and that “heavy fighting” was underway inside Pakistan.
“Afghan forces have crossed the so-called Durand Line and intense fighting is ongoing in enemy centers on the other side,” he said, asserting that the clashes were taking place at Pakistani military bases.
In a separate statement, the Taliban Defense Ministry said its forces had again carried out drone strikes inside Pakistan, targeting what it described as several military sites, including Nur Khan Air Base in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the 12th Corps in Quetta, the Khwazo camp in Mohmand Agency and a military command center in Ghazni.
Pakistan has previously claimed that it killed over 350 Taliban members in the fighting.
