Tensions between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban have surged after the Taliban government accused Islamabad of carrying out an attack that killed more than 400 people, an allegation Pakistan denies. Here is how the two sides compare in military strength, from troop numbers to nuclear capability.
More than 400 people were killed and around 250 injured in an air strike on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul late on Monday, Afghan officials said, while Pakistan rejected the claim, calling it “false and misleading.”
A survivor of the air strike on a Kabul drug rehabilitation centre described scenes of devastation, saying patients were engulfed in flames moments after explosions tore through the facility late Monday (16 March).
China’s special envoy for Afghanistan has begun visits to Kabul and Islamabad to mediate between the two countries, as cross-border clashes continue following Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan in February.
More than 68,000 children in eastern Afghanistan have been displaced after clashes between Afghan and Pakistani forces intensified along the border, according to a new report by Save the Children.
Schools across Pakistan are being forced to close for a fortnight from next week with government departments down to a four-day week, according to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a televised address to the nation.
China has urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their dispute through dialogue after Chinese envoy Yue Xiaoyong met Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, as fighting between the two neighbours entered its eleventh day.
Clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan continued for an eighth consecutive day, as the United Nations says more than 160,000 people have been displaced and Afghan officials claim an airstrike on a Pakistani military command centre in Balochistan.
China has called on Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their growing border dispute through dialogue and diplomatic channels, as clashes between their security forces entered a seventh day and left more than 160 people dead or injured, according to the United Nations.
Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has told Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that Ankara is ready to help reinforce the ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan, as clashes between the two neighbours continue for a sixth consecutive day.
At least 42 people have been killed and 104 wounded in fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said on Tuesday. The latest death toll figures come as fighting between the two neighbours enters its sixth day.
Protests broke out in Pakistan and Iraq on Sunday after Iranian state media confirmed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in joint U.S.–Israeli strikes. At least nine people were reported dead in clashes near the U.S. consulate in Karachi.
Afghanistan said it had fired at Pakistani aircraft over Kabul after explosions and gunfire rocked the capital early on Sunday, marking a sharp escalation in fighting between the two neighbours.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers said on Friday (27 February) they were ready to negotiate after Pakistan bombed their forces in several Afghan cities, including Kabul and Kandahar, and Islamabad declared the neighbours were now in "open war".
Afghan and Pakistani forces traded airstrikes and artillery fire along the Durand Line on Thursday night, killing dozens on both sides, as Pakistan’s defence minister warned the two countries were now in “open war” after months of escalating clashes.
Pakistani air strikes hit a weapons depot on the western outskirts of Kabul overnight, triggering hours of secondary explosions that rattled homes across the Afghan capital and left residents fearing further violence.
Pakistan’s declaration of an “open war” with Afghanistan must be understood in the context of months of escalating violence, regional analysts have said, describing the latest developments as a significant shift in the nature of the conflict.
Pakistan’s overnight air strikes on Afghanistan’s major cities have deepened a volatile standoff between the neighbours, straining a fragile ceasefire and prompting Islamabad to call the confrontation an “open war.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Friday urged Afghanistan and Pakistan to resolve their differences through dialogue, offering Tehran’s assistance to facilitate understanding between its eastern neighbours.
The Taliban's Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, has accused Pakistan of deliberately targeting civilians in recent airstrikes on Afghanistan, telling a senior United Nations official the attacks did not hit armed groups, as the UN confirmed more than a dozen members of one family were killed.
Seven people were killed after gunmen ambushed a police patrol in Kohat, a district in Pakistan’s north-west near the Afghan border, on Tuesday, in an attack that comes amid rising militant violence and heightened tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Comments by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee suggesting that Israel had a biblical right to much of the Middle East drew condemnation over the weekend from countries across the region, which described the remarks as “dangerous and inflammatory”.
Start your day informed with AnewZ Morning Brief. Here are the top news stories for the 22nd of February, covering the latest developments you need to know.
Pakistan said it carried out cross-border strikes on militant targets inside Afghanistan after blaming a series of recent suicide bombings, including attacks during the holy month of Ramadan, on fighters it said were operating from Afghan territory.
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