By RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal and RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
February 26, 2026

Several explosions have rocked Kabul just hours after Afghanistan and Pakistan traded strikes on each other in their volatile mountain border region as days of escalating tensions boiled over with both sides claiming to have killed dozens of militants and security forces.

Local sources told RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal that four locations were under attack in Afghanistan’s capital in the early hours of February 27, as well as a military base in the Kandahar region.

The sound of military jets were reportedly heard as explosions detonated around the capital.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government, confirmed strikes in “certain areas of Kabul, Kandahar, and Paktia.” He added that there were no reports of casualties.

Pakistan’s military confirmed its fighter planes had bombed Kabul, with Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for the Pakistani government, saying in a social media post that “counter strikes against targets in Afghanistan continue.”

The strikes on Kabul came amid a major escalation in hostilities between Afghanistan’s Taliban-led government and Islamabad.

Just hours earlier, Mujahid said Kabul had launched “a large-scale offensive operation against Pakistani military centers and military installations along the Durand Line,” a volatile border that cuts through traditional Pashtun and Baloch tribal territories.

Taliban’s Defense Ministry claimed that 55 Pakistani security personnel had been killed, while two bases and 19 posts were captured across the border by its forces.

Islamabad’s troops retaliated, Pakistani officials said, with Zaidi saying a total of 133 Afghan Taliban members are “confirmed killed,” and more than 200 others wounded.

“Many more casualties estimated in strikes in Kabul, Paktia and Kandahar military targets,” he added.

The claims from both sides could not be independently verified, though a local Kabul resident told RFE/RL that a “huge explosion” rocked the city.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said country’s forces were ready to “protect the country’s security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.”

“The Pakistani military is determined not to allow the country’s peace and security to be compromised under any circumstances,” he wrote on X.

The latest wave of attacks came after Pakistani air strikes four days earlier killed at least 18 people in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Paktika provinces.

Pakistan said it had launched those strikes on seven militant sites inside Afghanistan in a “retributive response” to recent suicide attacks it said were carried out by Afghan-based extremists. Pakistan claimed the strikes killed as many as 80 militants.

Taliban-run Afghan security structures rejected the claim as “false,” while government officials also said they were preparing “an appropriate and calculated response.”

Afghanistan denies Pakistan’s accusations that it is sheltering the Pakistani Taliban, an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban that appears to operate separately.

Tensions have run high between the two countries since Pakistan conducted air strikes on Kabul in October 2025 and followed up with additional attacks on Afghan territory.

Dozens of soldiers from both sides were killed in artillery clashes and heavy gunfire last year before a cease-fire was agreed through Qatari mediation.

However, several rounds of talks mediated by Qatar and Turkey, aimed at easing the tensions along the border, have failed to bring about a long-term breakthrough.

Copyright (c) 2026. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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