Pakistan bombed the fuel depot of private airline Kam Air near Afghanistan’s Kandahar airport, the ruling Taliban said yesterday, 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 yesterday, 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 air strikes 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.
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.”
Yesterday, 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.
&uuid=(email))