Pakistani airstrikes cause civilian casualties in Kabul, Taliban and UN say

By Mohammad Yunus Yawar

KABUL, March 13 (Reuters) – Pakistan bombed the fuel depot of private airline Kam Air near Afghanistan’s Kandahar airport, the ruling Taliban said on Friday, stepping up the neighbours’ worst conflict in years, despite China’s efforts to mediate.

The overnight strikes also hit residential areas in Kabul, killing four people and wounding more than a dozen. In eastern Nangarhar province later on Friday, a mortar shell that Afghan officials said was fired by Pakistan hit a house in the Momandara district, killing a woman and a child, a provincial spokesperson said.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said the airstrikes in Kabul had killed at least four civilians and injured 14 in the Pul-e-Charkhi area, including women and children.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X that the strikes were part of the ongoing operation dubbed “Ghazb lil Haq,” targeting what it described as militant camps and “terrorist support infrastructure” in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar. 

Dozens of sites were struck across Afghanistan, he added, denying that “any civilian population or infrastructure” had been targeted.

The strikes on the depot, which Afghan administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said supplies fuel to civilian airlines and United Nations aircraft, threaten to spark further hostilities between two countries that neighbour Iran.

UNABLE TO SHOUT

In Kabul, residents said they heard explosions around midnight before bricks began falling in their homes and dust obscured their vision.

“I ran toward the hallway and started calling out to see who was alive,” said Homayoun, 45, who was woken from sleep by a blast, followed by the screams of his children.

“I tried to shout, but my voice wouldn’t come out because dust and smoke had filled my throat.”

In District 21 on the outskirts of the capital, bricks littered sandy streets and homes had walls blown out. “When we woke up, dust was everywhere, the windows were broken, and we could hear nothing,” said 35-year-old resident Murselin. 

Haji Mohammad Aman, a Kabul resident with relatives whose house had been hit, said he could not understand why their neighbourhood had been targeted.

“This entire area is residential,” he added. “Many very poor people live in this area. There is not even a single government or military facility.”

On Friday, the United Nations said it had recorded at least 75 civilians killed and 193 wounded in the fighting since February 26. The Taliban government says more than 110 civilians have been killed.

Pakistan has rejected both tolls, saying it targets only militants and support infrastructure.

AFGHAN RESPONSE TO THE STRIKES

Mujahid, the Afghan administration spokesperson, vowed Pakistan’s aggression would “not go unanswered.”

The Afghan defence ministry said later in the day that its air force had targeted a military facility in the Faizabad area of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, with drones.

Flights at Islamabad International Airport were interrupted on Friday before resuming normal operations, Pakistan’s civil aviation authority said.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi ordered tighter security in Islamabad, cutting the capital’s entry points from 109 to 25 and strengthening checkpoint monitoring, the interior ministry said.

Two girls were injured when a drone struck a house on the outskirts of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan, Naseer Agha, a local police official, said.

In a separate incident, seven police officers, including a station house officer, were killed and another wounded in a roadside bomb blast targeting a police vehicle in Lakki Marwat district, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan, police said.

Afghanistan’s acting Foreign Minister Mullah Amir Khan Muttaqi had a call with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, according to an X post by the Afghanistan foreign ministry. 

Wang Yi said in the call that military action is not a solution to the problems between the two South Asian countries, according to the post. 

No Pakistani airstrikes had been reported in the past week after Beijing boosted mediation efforts, including messages from President Xi Jinping to halt the fighting.

Ground clashes along the 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border had also tapered off, despite intermittent fighting.

The fighting erupted last month with Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan that Islamabad said targeted militant strongholds. Afghanistan called the strikes a violation of its sovereignty and launched its own attacks.

Militancy has been contentious between the neighbouring allies-turned-foes, with Islamabad saying Kabul provides a haven to militants launching attacks on Pakistan.

The Taliban deny the allegation, saying tackling militancy is Pakistan’s internal problem. 

(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul and Saad Sayeed in Bangkok; Additional reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar in Mumbai, Mushtaq Ali in Peshawar, Saudi Mehsud in Dera Ghazi Khan, and Mubasher Bukhari in Lahore, Saleem Ahmed in Quetta; Writing by Sakshi Dayal, Ariba Shahid and Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan, Clarence Fernandez, Aidan Lewis, Rod Nickel)