Pakistan Strikes Afghanistan in ‘Open War’ Against Taliban Government {26th February 2026}

The New York Times ^ | 26.Feb.2026 | Elian Peltier and Safiullah Padshah

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Pakistan carried out airstrikes on Afghanistan’s two largest cities on Friday, including the capital, Kabul, according to officials from both nations, escalating months of tension and border skirmishes into an open conflict.

Beyond Kabul, home to six million people, the strikes hit the southern city of Kandahar — where the Taliban’s supreme leader, Sheikh Haibatullah Akhundzada, lives — and the border province of Paktia, according to Zabiullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban government.

Pakistan launched the strikes hours after Afghan troops had attacked Pakistani border positions, according to Afghan and Pakistani officials. The Afghan attacks were described as retaliation for Pakistani strikes earlier in the week.

“Our cup of patience has overflowed,” Pakistan’s defense minister, Khawaja Asif, said on social media. “Now it is open war between us and you.”

At least one ammunition depot was bombed in Kabul, according to an Afghan military officer who reached the site shortly afterward and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the clashes publicly. Pakistan’s state broadcaster said an ammunition depot in Kandahar had also been bombed.

Relations between the neighboring countries have deteriorated in recent months over Pakistan’s accusations that the Afghan government is harboring the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. The militant group has waged a relentless campaign against Pakistani security forces in recent years, and last fall claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed a dozen people at a courthouse in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital.

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it wasn’t worth it except as an in-between place to richer lands