Years of conflict and rivalry boiled over on Thursday night, with Pakistan declaring ‘open war’ on Afghanistan and launching airstrikes on Kabul and other provinces across the Taliban-ruled country.
“Pakistani air strikes hit a weapons depot on the western outskirts of Kabul overnight, triggering hours of secondary explosions that rattled homes across the Afghan capital and left residents fearing further violence,” Reuters reported Friday.
Pakistan’s security establishment, which took credit for the Taliban’s return to power less than five years ago, turned on its fellow Islamist ally, with the country’s defense minister declaring ‘open war’ on Afghanistan. “The strikes were part of a sharp escalation between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, with the once-close allies also trading cross-border attacks and Pakistan describing the situation as open conflict,” the news agency added.
The Associated Press reported Friday:
Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged cross-border attacks overnight in a dramatic escalation of tensions that led Pakistan’s defense minister to say on Friday that the two countries are in a state of “open war.”Afghanistan launched an attack on Pakistan late Thursday, saying it was in retaliation for deadly Pakistani airstrikes on Afghan border areas Sunday. Pakistan then carried out airstrikes in Kabul and two other Afghan provinces early Friday, saying it targeted military installations.Tensions have been high for months. Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India. (…)Pakistan’s air force carried out airstrikes Friday night targeting military installations in Afghanistan’s Laghman province, two senior Pakistani security officials said. They said an arms depot and two key military installations were destroyed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media on the record. (…)Pakistan’s army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said Pakistani air and ground operations killed at least 274 members of Afghan forces and affiliated militants and wounded more than 400, while 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed and 27 others were wounded. One Pakistani soldier was missing in action.
The declaration of war came after months of cross-border skirmishes, with casualties on both sides. Islamabad accuses the Kabul regime of harboring the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) terrorist group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban. In early February, 30 people were killed in a blast at a mosque in Islamabad. Pakistan blamed the Taliban-linked TTP for the attack.
As a new war erupts in the Middle East, the prospect of a U.S. strike on Iran looms even larger.
A day after nuclear talks between the U.S. and Iran ended without an agreement, the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem is telling its non-emergency staff to leave the country. Diplomats and their families, wanting to leave Israel, “should do so TODAY,” Ambassador Mike Huckabee wrote in an email.
With the possibility of a U.S. strike growing amid Iran’s refusal to negotiate, Britain is pulling its embassy staff out of the country. “The UK has temporarily withdrawn staff from its embassy in Tehran, as the threat of US strikes against Iran prompts warnings from a number of countries to their citizens in the Middle East,” the BBC reported Friday.
Besides the U.S., several countries have urged their nationals to leave Iran immediately. “A number of other countries including China, India and Canada have told their citizens to leave Iran as soon as possible due to the prospect of hostilities,” the UK broadcaster added.
The New York Times reported Ambassador Huckabee’s message to the staffers:
With the threat of a U.S. strike on Iran looming, the United States embassy in Jerusalem has told its workers that they may leave Israel and warned them that if they want to, it is vital that they do so immediately.The directive came from Ambassador Mike Huckabee in an email to embassy workers at the U.S. mission on Friday, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times.Those wishing to leave “should do so TODAY,” Mr. Huckabee wrote, urging them to find flights out of Ben-Gurion Airport to any destination for which they could book passage. “There is no need to panic,” he added, “but for those desiring to leave, it’s important to make plans to depart sooner rather than later.”The email, which was verified by three people with knowledge of the matter, made no explicit mention of Iran. It followed meetings and phone calls through the night, Mr. Huckabee wrote to employees, and resulted from “an abundance of caution” and conversations with the State Department in which officials agreed that the safety of embassy staff was a priority.The embassy’s move “will likely result in high demand for airline seats today,” he said in the email. “Focus on getting a seat to anyplace from which you can then continue travel to DC, but the first priority will be getting expeditiously out of country.”He added that while there might be more outbound flights in the coming days, there also might not be.
Satellite imagery circulating on X showed the U.S. evacuating the Al Udeid air base in Qatar amid rising tensions in the region. In late June 2025, Iran fired missiles at the base during the 12-Day war.
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