By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Security forces destroyed a drone storage facility and an ammunition depot operated by the Afghan Taliban in the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad, an official said on Monday, part of an escalating military campaign that has triggered the most serious clashes between the two countries in years.
The strike was the latest in a series of operations that began after Afghan Taliban attacks on Pakistan’s border installations. Launched under the name Operation Ghazb lil Haq on the night of Feb. 26, the campaign followed Pakistani airstrikes on Feb. 21-22 that targeted militant hideouts inside Afghanistan.
A Pakistani security official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing operations, said the military was pressing “strong retaliatory action” against both TTP militants — referred to by Pakistani authorities as Fitna Al-Khawarij — and Afghan Taliban units. Pakistani troops blew up multiple border posts and forced their occupants to abandon them, the official said. “Pakistan forces are effectively targeting the bases and military installations of the Fitna Al-Khawarij and the Afghan Taliban.” The Jalalabad strike, he added, destroyed “the ammunition depot and drone storage site of Fitna Al-Khawarij (TTP) and the Afghan Taliban.”
On Monday, information minister Attaullah Tarar provided said the campaign had killed 435 Afghan Taliban personnel and wounded more than 630 others since it began. Military strikes destroyed 188 checkpoints and allowed Pakistani forces to seize 31 more. The operation also eliminated 188 pieces of heavy equipment, including tanks, armored vehicles and artillery guns. Precision airstrikes hit 51 locations across Afghanistan.
On Friday, Pakistani strikes targeted Taliban military installations and outposts in and around Kabul and Kandahar, two of Afghanistan’s largest cities and strongholds of Taliban power. Officials described the raids as among the farthest-reaching Pakistani incursions into Afghanistan in years. The fighting has centered on the rugged 2,600-kilometer (1,615-mile) border that has long been a corridor for militants moving in both directions.
State television aired video that it said showed Pakistani soldiers crossing into Afghanistan in the northwest to seize an Afghan border post. A second Pakistani security official said forces had taken control of 32 square kilometers of Afghan territory. The hostilities have raised fears of a wider and more protracted conflict along a frontier that both countries have struggled to control.
Pakistan has long complained that the Taliban, after taking power in Kabul in 2021, failed to curb TTP activities despite repeated Pakistani demands. The TTP has stepped up attacks inside Pakistan over the past two years, contributing to a sharp rise in violence that has strained Islamabad’s relations with its western neighbor.
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