As Afghanistan and Pakistan are indulged in a fierce battle that intensified on late Thursday night, a footage has surfaced on social media showing a massive
drone attack targeting Pakistani Army infrastructure. Afghanistan has released footage showing how its drones targeted Pakistan's military establishments as clashes between the two nations continues. The cross-border attacks escalated overnight in a dramatic escalation of tensions that led to Pakistan’s defense minister to say on Friday that the two countries are in a state of “open war.” The video shared by X handle Frontal Force shows Afghanistan claiming a huge drone attack at Pakistani military sites. The video shows infrared drone footage from Afghanistan's Taliban forces targeting sites near Nowshehra. The latest strikes by Afghanistan are part of retaliatory attacks days after Rawalpindi airstrikes on Tehreek-E-Taliban (TTP) Pakistan hideouts in Afghanistan. However, Times Now independently cannot verify the authenticity of the footage.
Ever since then, the border tension between the two neighbours has escalated, with Pakistanis calling it an "open war". The infrared footage shows drones carrying out precision strikes on Pakistan's military infrastructure, including artillery and red markings highlighting explosions.
After the Afghan strikes, Pakistan's Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif said in a post on X: “Our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
Asif said Pakistan had hoped for peace in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of NATO forces in 2021 and expected the Taliban, which seized power in the country, to focus on the welfare of the Afghan people and regional stability.
Instead, he said the Taliban had turned Afghanistan “into a colony of India,” with which Pakistan has periodically engaged in wars, clashes and skirmishes since gaining independence from British colonial rule in 1947. India's ties with Afghanistan have improved recently, with offers of enhanced bilateral trade, to the annoyance of Islamabad.
Tensions have been high for months, with border clashes in October killing dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that then stage attacks across the border and also of allying with its archrival India.
A Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the fighting, although the two sides still occasionally trade fire. Several rounds of peace talks in Istanbul in November failed to produce a formal agreement.
With inputs from AP
