News
July 03, 2026
Afghan Taliban Launch Strikes on Border with Pakistan as Tensions Escalate
Kabul: Afghanistan's Taliban regime said they have carried out strikes on targets along the border with Pakistan, injuring several people in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province.
Pakistan's military said it had shot down four rudimentary drones and warned any further provocation "would receive a befitting response". The BBC has been unable to independently confirm the attack.
The strikes come after Pakistan launched its own air strikes on Afghanistan on Sunday, killing 28 civilians, according to the UN.
Tensions have reignited in the region after months of relative calm. The two countries had agreed to a ceasefire in October following weeks of deadly clashes.
Pakistan has long accused Afghanistan of harboring terrorists who carry out attacks on its soil, a claim the Taliban government rejects.
Kabul in turn has accused Islamabad of carrying out unprovoked attacks which kill civilians. Pakistan says it only targets militants.
Afghanistan said Pakistan's attack on Sunday hit civilian homes and put the civilian death toll at 36, with more than 160 injured.
It described the attack as a "cowardly act" and an "atrocity".
Pakistan said it had carried out a ground operation along the border and air strikes targeting militant hideouts in Afghanistan's Paktia, Paktika, and Kunar provinces.
The country's information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said 29 militants had been killed in an operation responding to "recent terrorist attacks against innocent people".
The BBC has not independently confirmed figures from either side.
Intermittent border clashes and air strikes in the area have killed dozens of people in recent months, according to officials in both countries.
In February, clashes between the two countries left dozens of people dead. In March, a Pakistani strike on a drug rehabilitation center in Kabul killed hundreds.
– BBC
Al Jazeera adds: Pakistan’s military said on Wednesday it shot down four drones launched by the Afghan Taliban into Balochistan, hours after Afghanistan’s defense ministry claimed its air force had struck what it called ISIL (ISIS) “centers” in Balochistan’s Pishin district and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the drones were detected immediately after crossing the border and were neutralized through “sophisticated countermeasures”, describing the launch as part of the Afghan Taliban’s “patronization and support of terrorist outfits”.
Earlier, on June 27, gunmen attacked a paramilitary compound in Karachi, killing three personnel. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, a splinter faction of the Pakistan Taliban (TTP), claimed responsibility, and the suspect captured alive was identified as an Afghan national. Pakistan responded on June 29 with strikes in Paktia , Paktika and Kunar provinces, claiming 25 fighters were killed. The Taliban government said 36 civilians died.
The drone strikes mark the latest in an escalating back-and-forth of military strikes between Afghan and Pakistani territory since October 2025.
The question is, will the drone strikes lead to a new escalation from Pakistan, or will the neighbors find a way to return to diplomacy to resolve their deepening tensions?
Behind those tensions are numbers that Pakistani officials say they cannot ignore. The Pakistan Institute for Peace Studies (PIPS) recorded 699 “terrorist” attacks across the country in 2025, a 34 percent increase from the previous year, with at least 1,034 people killed.
Meanwhile, the United States-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) project has documented at least a dozen drone launches into Pakistani territory since February.
Still, Pakistani officials told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity that for now, they plan to pursue what they described as a strategy of controlled escalation: responding forcefully to armed attacks from non-state groups while being more selective about how to retaliate against the Afghan Taliban government strikes.
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