Afghanistan Launches Retaliatory Drone Strikes On Pakistan, Strucks Kohat Military Fort

Afghanistan conducted retaliatory drone strikes on strategic military centres and installations of the Pakistan army in the Kohath area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence said on Friday.

Pakistan’s Kohat Military Fort, a war command centre along the Durand Line, and the office of the fort’s commander sustained significant damage during the retaliatory strikes.

In a post on X, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defence said, “The fort’s military installations, the command centre, depots, and soldiers’ residential quarters were destroyed, resulting in significant human and material losses.”

The strikes came after the military targeted various areas of the Alisher-Terezai district of Khost province, near the hypothetical Durand Line, with artillery fire, as per TOLO News. Four members of one family were killed, and three others were injured as a result of the shelling.

The Pakistan Air Force also struck the fuel depots belonging to the private airline Kam Air near Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan.

In a post on X, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said that this company provides fuel materials for domestic airlines as well as for United Nations aircraft. Zabihullah Mujahid also accused Pakistan of previously attacking the fuel storage of a national trader named Haji Khan Zadah.

This comes amid an increasing exchange of airstrikes between Pakistan and Afghanistan along the Durand Line in February. Pakistan launched air strikes on Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and other cities as clashes escalate along the two countries’ shared border.

The Durand Line dispute and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 have fuelled tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, with frequent clashes reported.

In particular, Pakistan wants the Taliban to rein in armed groups such as the Pakistan Taliban, known by its acronym TTP, which it says Afghanistan is harbouring. The TTP emerged in Pakistan in 2007 and is separate from the Taliban in Afghanistan but shares deep ideological, social and linguistic ties with the group, as per Al Jazeera.

Armed attacks in Pakistan by the TTP and the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), which operates in the resource-rich Balochistan province, have surged in recent years. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, which border Afghanistan, have borne the brunt of the violence. (ANI)