Kabul, March 16 – Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence has confirmed that it conducted a targeted drone strike on a Pakistani military camp in the Wana area of the South Waziristan region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in response to overnight airstrikes by Islamabad in Kandahar province, local media reported on Monday.
According to the ministry's statement, the drone strike targeted facilities used by the commandos of the Special Service Group and other military installations. The ministry said that the strike resulted in heavy casualties and damage to Pakistani forces, Khaama Press, Afghanistan's leading news agency, reported.
Pakistani officials have not yet released a statement regarding the Afghan drone strike.
Earlier, Pakistani forces conducted airstrikes overnight in parts of Afghanistan's Kandahar province as part of what Islamabad termed operations targeting militant positions near the border.
Afghan authorities said that Pakistani strikes targeted a drug rehabilitation hospital and an empty container, adding that the attacks did not cause any casualties, Khaama Press reported.
The latest statements highlight the growing instability along the border, raising concerns that continued strikes could further escalate tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Last week, Afghan government's deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said that Pakistani airstrikes had claimed four lives and injured 25 others in Kabul.
According to the official, Pakistan also conducted air raids on Kandahar, Paktika, Khost and Nangarhar provinces on Thursday night and Friday. An oil depot was targeted in Kandahar, Xinhua News Agency reported.
On March 13, Afghanistan's Ministry of National Defence said that it conducted strikes on Pakistani military centres and installations in Kohat district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in retaliation to the airstrikes launched by Islamabad on Thursday night which resulted in several civilian casualties on the Afghan side.
According to the statement released by Kabul, the military fort in Kohat and the war command centre along the Durand Line were targeted during the strike.
In a statement shared on X, Afghanistan's Ministry of National Defence stated, "In response to last night’s incursions by the Pakistani military regime, Afghan air forces conducted strikes this morning on strategic military centers and installations of the Pakistani army in the Kohat area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa."
In another post on X, the ministry wrote, "During these strikes, the Kohat military fort was struck, while the war command centre along the Durand Line located approximately two kilometres from the fort along with the office of the fort’s commander, was also precisely targeted."
"As a result of these strikes, the fort’s military installations, the command centre, depots, and soldiers’ residential quarters were destroyed, resulting in significant human and material losses," it added.
The current round of hostilities began when Taliban-led Afghan forces launched retaliatory operations against Pakistani military installations on February 27, following Pakistan's actions targeting militants inside Afghan territory on February 21.
Following Afghanistan's attacks, Pakistan launched 'Operation Ghazab lil-Haq' (Righteous Fury) in response to what it described as "unprovoked firing" by the Afghan forces across multiple border sectors.