The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) struck targets across at least five Afghan provinces between 21 and 27 February, including the Afghan capital Kabul, the Taliban’s spiritual seat of Kandahar, and the southeastern province of Paktia. Pakistani officials described the strikes as intelligence-based operations against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State – Khorasan Province (IS-K) camps, claiming over 130 Afghan Taliban fighters killed in the latest round alone.
The Taliban responded on 26 February with what its spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid called “large-scale offensive operations” against Pakistani military posts along the Durand Line. Kabul claimed the capture of between 13 and 19 Pakistani outposts and the deaths of up to 55 Pakistani soldiers, according to Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat. Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar acknowledged two soldiers killed and three wounded, while claiming 133 Afghan fighters dead and 27 Taliban posts destroyed.
The exchange marks the most severe direct military confrontation between Pakistan and the Taliban since the latter’s return to power in 2021.
A Conflict Without a Short Horizon
The immediate trigger for the February escalation is well-documented. The 6 February IS-K suicide bombing at the Khadija Tul Kubra mosque in Islamabad killed at least 32 worshippers and wounded 170, according to Pakistani police and the UN Security Council. A sustained surge in militancy – Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) recorded 2,425 militant incidents across Pakistan in 2025, nearly four times the 658 incidents in 2022 – appears to have exhausted Islamabad’s tolerance for diplomatic solutions with Kabul.
However, the structural dynamics at play suggest this is not a crisis with a short resolution timeline. Afghanistan and Pakistan have been in some form of cross-border military tension since 1947, when Kabul was the sole country to vote against Pakistan’s admission to the United Nations. The Durand Line – drawn in 1893 by a British colonial diplomat and never recognized by any Afghan government – remains the foundational grievance.
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