Pakistani military carried out airstrikes on an Afghan military facility in Kandahar on Friday in retaliation for drone attacks launched by the Taliban targeting civilian and military installations across Pakistan.
President Asif Ali Zardari, announcing the strikes, said, “Kabul has crossed all red lines by attempting to target our civilians.” He confirmed that the Taliban drones were intercepted before reaching their intended targets, but falling debris injured two children in Quetta and civilians in Kohat and Rawalpindi.
Airspace around the targeted areas was temporarily shut down before being reopened.
Authorities in Islamabad stated that the Kandahar facility had been used as a base to launch drone attacks and support cross-border terrorist activity.
The latest exchange marks the sharpest single-day escalation in a conflict that has been building since late February, when Islamabad launched military operations against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) inside Afghan territory.
Pakistan also accuses Kabul of harbouring fighters from the ISIL-Khorasan Province affiliate — charges the Taliban government denies.
Pakistani aircraft struck a fuel depot belonging to private airline Kam Air near Kandahar airport, which an airport official said supplied aid organisations, including the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan conflict has claimed the lives of 90 people on both sides and displaced around 115,000 since the February escalation, according to the United Nations.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged both sides to pursue dialogue, warning that further use of force would only deepen the crisis — an appeal that came as Pakistani jets were already conducting strikes over Kandahar.
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