Assault units, mechanized infantry vehicles and drones were used by the Afghan forces to destroy at least four Pak Army posts and ISIS camps. 19 Pak Army personnel are believed to have been killed.
The Afghanistan government early on Saturday launched a military attack on Pakistan Army posts and what it claimed were training camps of terror group Islamic State (ISIS).
Kabul-based sources claimed that this was the first such military assault undertaken by the Taliban-led government in Kabul on Pakistani soil, which included entering Pakistan’s airspace using armed drones to target ISIS camps. While border skirmishes have occurred between the two countries over issues related to the Durand Line, Afghan forces have never crossed into Pakistan.
As per sources within the group and the Afghanistan defence ministry, at least 19 Pakistan Army personnel were killed by the Afghan defence forces in which members of the 203 Mansoori Corps took part. 203 Mansoori Corps is one of Afghanistan’s eight army corps, which was established in October 2021 and is headquartered in Gardez, eastern Afghanistan, located in the Paktika Province near the Pakistan border.
There was no official word from the Pakistan foreign ministry or the army on these attacks, till the time of this report going to press.
Sources said that apart from assault units and mechanized infantry vehicles, drones were also used by the Afghan forces to destroy at least four Pakistan Army posts and ISIS camps.
Undated pictures and videos shared with The Sunday Guardian showed 19 purported Pakistani soldiers standing in a surrender posture without any weapon. Similar videos shared with this newspaper showed dead body of what was claimed to be a Pakistani soldier who was allegedly killed by a sniper.
The Sunday Guardian was not able to independently verify the veracity of the videos and the pictures.
The attacks by the Taliban-led Afghan government came after an air raid by Pakistan Air Force inside Afghanistan killed, in what Kabul has claimed were 56 civilians, including 20 children, a figure that was also confirmed by international aid agencies.
On early Saturday morning, Taliban supporters’ accounts shared cryptic messages, including “Good night” and “The Day of Revenge.” The Sunday Guardian reporter also received similar messages at 1 AM IST, indicating the impending attack by Afghan forces.
There were no casualties among the Afghan military, Kabul-based sources said, while stating that at least three nomads were killed in mortar fire carried out by the Pakistan Army.
Sources told The Sunday Guardian that these attacks were launched from the direction of Dand Patan district in Paktia towards the Dabgai area across the Durand Line, and from the direction of Ali Sher district in Khost towards the Ozgari area.
Later in the day, the Afghanistan ministry of defence confirmed the attack on social media platform, “X”. “Several points beyond the assumptive lines where the attacks in Afghanistan were organized and coordinated from wicked elements’ hideaways, centers and supporters; were targeted in retaliation from the southern side of the country,” the MoD said while referring to ISIS camps.
Sources told this newspaper that the Afghani drones targeted ISIS hideouts and training camps in areas of Ozhgari and Dabagi. There was no information regarding the fatalities in these attacks.
The immediate reason behind Kabul mounting this unprecedented act against Pakistan is the Pakistani airstrike conducted on Afghan soil on the night of 24 December that resulted in the killing of at least 20 children, which was confirmed by the United Nations Children’s Fund.
On 26 December at 6 PM, Sanjay Wijesekera, the regional director of UNICEF, put out a tweet on the social media platform “X” confirming the claims of the Afghan government that the Pakistani airstrike was on a residential civilian area and not on terrorist camps.
“@Unicef is deeply saddened by reports that at least 20 children have been killed in an attack near the border in eastern Afghanistan. Our sincere condolences to those who have lost loved ones. Children are not and must never be a target,” Wijesekera tweeted.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) too on the same day tweeted that it had received credible reports that dozens of civilians including women and children were killed in the airstrike by the Pakistan military.
This came a few hours after the Pakistani Foreign Office (FO) on Thursday said that Pakistani forces conducted “operations in border areas to protect the people of Pakistan from terrorist groups”. “These operations are carefully selected and are based on authentic and concrete intelligence,” the Foreign Office spokesperson had said.
Multiple independent sources in the Afghan government told The Sunday Guardian that the observation by UNICEF and UNAMA had confirmed their allegations that the Pakistani Air Force strike had killed innocent civilians.
According to them, the airstrike on four locations in Afghanistan’s Paktika province, specifically in the Barmal district near the international border, struck refugee camps housing Waziristani refugees who had fled Pakistan because of Operation Zarb-e-Azab in 2014. These bombings resulted in the death of 56 people and left 25 others injured, with many victims being children and other civilians.
Sources quoting eyewitnesses and government reports told The Sunday Guardian that the four locations that were targeted in Barmal district were Laman Shin Starga Ada, Sur Zaghmi, Murgha, and Al-Mustawiyah.
According to sources, before the airstrike, a drone was hovering in the area. Ten minutes later, jet aircraft arrived and started bombing. Sources said that it is quite possible the drone was also used in the attack, as the sound of the bombing was intense and indistinguishable.
Video and photographs provided to The Sunday Guardian of the purported sites where the Pakistani jets dropped bombs show that it was a civilian compound and not a training camp. The Sunday Guardian could not independently verify these claims. However, the statement by UNICEF confirms what the Taliban sources had communicated to this newspaper.
On Saturday, hundreds of local residents in Khost province came out on road to support Taliban’s retaliatory action while shouting and carrying anti-Pakistan posters and appealing to the international community to impose economic sanctions on Pakistan.
This was the second such violation of Afghan airspace by Pakistani military aircraft this year.
Back in March, Pakistan had carried out a similar “intelligence-based anti-terrorist operation” inside the border regions of Afghanistan, killing eight people. These airstrikes were done in Khost and Paktika provinces.
In response to Tuesday’s attack, the Afghan ministry of defence had issued a condemnation, calling it a “barbaric act” and a violation of international law. It stated that the Afghan government considers the bombings an act of aggression and asserts its right to defend its territory, promising that such actions would not go unanswered
Significantly, these airstrikes were ordered just hours after Pakistan’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Mohammad Sadiq, met with top Afghan officials in Kabul, including Sirajuddin Haqqani, the acting interior minister. Sources in Kabul informed this newspaper that the topic of the impending airstrikes did not come up during the discussions.
This development follows a pattern often employed by the Pakistan military, similar to its approach with India. Pakistan has previously used dialogue as a front while continuing to engage in military actions in the background. A notable example of this was during the Kargil conflict, as well as the series of terror attacks that occurred during Modi-1 rule, despite efforts by the Indian government to improve bilateral relations.
It is also being viewed in some quarters as a clear sign of the apparent disconnect between the civil government and military actions, with the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi, as usual, having the final say on matters of bilateral relations. It also adds to the assessment that certain factions within Pakistan’s military and intelligence services are clearly opposed to improving bilateral relations with Kabul unless Kabul agrees to be a “vassal”.
Officials in Kabul told The Sunday Guardian that they believe the actions of the Pakistan Army were strategically aimed at diverting domestic public attention and shifting the narrative within Pakistan. By conducting the airstrikes, they argue, the Pakistan Army sought to portray Afghanistan as a breeding ground for terrorism, thereby justifying their military actions and efforts to stoke fear of instability.
This move, they suggest, is part of a broader effort to redirect public outrage and frustration over recent security challenges within Pakistan, including deadly attacks on the military, by accusing Afghanistan of harbouring militants and exacerbating regional tensions.
While the Taliban government in Kabul has stated that such attacks will not go unanswered, the options available to Kabul, as the retaliation on Saturday showed, remain limited.
Analysts expect that Afghanistan will continue to face more such airstrikes and military actions from Pakistan unless it eventually yields to the demands of the Pakistan military. These demands are not restricted to the handing over of members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Pakistan accuses of operating from within Afghanistan, but likely extend to broader military and political concessions.
In July, Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had told a media outlet in an interview that Pakistan would “continue to launch attacks against Afghanistan as part of a new military operation aimed at countering terrorism”. “It’s correct that we have been carrying out operations in Afghanistan, and we will continue to do so. We won’t serve them with cake and pastries. If attacked, we’ll attack back,” Asif had said.
The Taliban government in Afghanistan faces significant military limitations, particularly when it comes to defending its airspace. Without an air defence system, Kabul has no means to protect itself from incursions by foreign aircraft, such as the Pakistani airstrikes. Additionally, the Taliban lacks offensive weapons, except an unknown number of armed drones that could allow it to launch a retaliatory strike or deter further violations of its airspace by Pakistan’s military.
A particularly hard reality check that is likely to come for Kabul after this incident is the lack of international support in the wake of Pakistan’s airstrikes. To date, no country has come forward to condemn the attacks on civilian areas, highlighting Afghanistan’s ongoing isolation on the global stage. This situation shows how far Kabul still is from being recognized as an equal in the international community.
Given the country’s need for international support and aid, it is likely that Kabul will reconsider some of its regressive decisions, especially in the areas of girls’ education and women’s employment. These policies have provided more reasons for its detractors to create a negative narrative on the global stage, discouraging even friendly countries from offering assistance.