Pakistan Launches Fresh Airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika, Ends Two-Day Truce

Pakistan carried out fresh airstrikes in Afghanistan’s border province of Paktika on Friday evening, shattering a fragile ceasefire that had held for two days amid escalating tensions between the two neighbours.

“Pakistan has broken the ceasefire and bombed three locations in Paktika,” a senior Taliban official told AFP, warning that “Afghanistan will retaliate.”

The strikes came just as the temporary truce between Islamabad and Kabul expired on Friday evening. Reuters, citing Pakistani security officials and a Taliban source, earlier reported that both sides had agreed to extend the ceasefire until the completion of talks in Doha.

The ceasefire, which began at 6 p.m. Islamabad time on Wednesday, had halted nearly a week of fierce border clashes that left dozens of soldiers and civilians dead on both sides.

Tensions between the two countries spiked dramatically last Saturday, coinciding with a visit to India by the Taliban’s foreign minister.