Heavy clashes between Pakistan and the Taliban-led Afghan government broke out on February 27, with hundreds of casualties reported on both sides of their contested border. The fighting between the two countries is the most severe since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021.
"Our cup of patience has overflowed," Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Pakistan's defense minister, said after the Pakistani military launched a series of airstrikes in Afghanistan. "Now it is open war between us and [Afghanistan]."
The Pakistani military launched Ghazab Lil Haqq, or "Operation Righteous Fury," after the Afghan Taliban attacked Pakistani military outposts along the border. The Afghan Taliban said it had launched those attacks in response to Pakistani airstrikes against jihadi training camps in Afghanistan last weekend.
The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan (TTP) and Al Qaeda, two terror groups that are enemies of the Pakistani state, are sheltered and supported by the Afghan Taliban. The TTP is waging a deadly insurgency in Pakistan and launches attacks against the Pakistani state on a daily basis.
Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, the director general of the Pakistani military Inter-Services Public Relations, said that Pakistan launched Operation Righteous Fury after the Afghan Taliban and "Fitna al Khawarij" struck 53 military sites in western Pakistan. The Pakistani military and government refer to the TTP as Fitna al Khawarij and falsely claim that the group is an Indian-sponsored proxy. Chaudhry claimed that all 53 Afghan attacks, which included "armed quadcopters [and] big and small weapons," were defeated by the Pakistani military.
"The Afghan Taliban regime, which is the master proxy of all these terrorist proxies operating from Afghanistan … that master proxy … came into action last night … along with the terrorists of Fitna al Khawarij," Chaudhry said.
In response, the Pakistani military destroyed 73 outposts along the border and seized 18 more, killing 274 Afghan Taliban fighters and wounding 400, Chaudhry claimed. Additionally, the Pakistani Air Force targeted 22 facilities, including military headquarters, bases, weapons depots, and terrorist safe houses, in Afghanistan's Kabul, Kandahar, Khost, Nangarhar, Paktia, and Paktika provinces. Twelve Pakistani soldiers were killed, and 27 were wounded, according to Chaudhry.
Pakistani politicians have ratcheted up rhetoric against the Taliban. For example, Pakistan Minister of Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar called the Taliban government "illegitimate" and claimed its leaders have "used perversion of religion to further their own motives."
Afghan Taliban touts strikes on Pakistan
Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had launched airstrikes against Pakistani military sites, which led to the Pakistani response. Taliban air assets hit various targets, including "a military camp near Faizabad in Islamabad, a military headquarters in Nowshera, a military headquarters in Jamrud, and also in Abbottabad," Enayatullah Khwarazmi, a spokesperson for the Taliban's Ministry of Defense, claimed.
The Taliban's Ministry of Defense also claimed that 55 Pakistani soldiers were killed and "two [Pakistani] headquarters and 19 check posts" were captured during the fighting. Eight Taliban fighters were killed, and 11 more were wounded, according to the Ministry of Defense. Afghan military operations are reportedly set to end at midnight on February 27.
The most intense round of fighting since 2021
Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban have clashed several times since the Afghan Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021. However, today's fighting is the most serious round between the two neighbors.
The last time the two countries clashed was in October 2025, when the Afghan Taliban launched attacks inside Pakistan after the Pakistani military attempted to kill the head of the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan in the Afghan capital of Kabul.
The Pakistani government and military have become increasingly frustrated since the Afghan Taliban rose to power in 2021. The Pakistani state had hoped that the Afghan Taliban would restrain the TTP, which aims to mirror the Afghan Taliban's success and establish an Islamic Emirate in Pakistan.
While the Pakistani government and military accuse India of backing the TTP, the Pakistanis are directly responsible for the rise and the success of the TTP. Pakistan has supported the Afghan Taliban since its founding in 1994 and used the group to improve its "strategic depth"—both geographically in Afghanistan and as a fighting force—against its primary foe, India. The Afghan Taliban also supported and continues to support the TTP, providing shelter for the terror group as it launched its insurgency in Pakistan. The Pakistani state has been well aware of the close relationship between the Taliban and the TTP. However, it has looked the other way for three decades to maintain its coveted strategic depth, hoping for a pliant Afghan state that it could use to support a war against India.
