Kabul, March 1 – The capital of Afghanistan, Kabul, was attacked by Pakistani air power around 5:40 a.m. local time on Sunday, triggering a series of explosions and a response from the Afghan air defense forces targeting aerial targets.
This round of airstrikes lasted for approximately 20 minutes.
In recent days, military tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated, with several exchanges of fire, according to reports from Xinhua news agency.
Earlier, Deputy Spokesman of the Afghan Government, Hamdullah Fitrat, said that three Afghan returnees were killed and seven others were injured after Pakistani forces attacked a temporary camp of returnees in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Saturday.
Pakistani forces launched the airstrikes and bombarded the temporary camp in Kandahar at 08:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, Fitrat said in a statement posted on his social media X.
In a related development, an Afghan official claimed that a remotely piloted aircraft allegedly sent by Pakistan to attack Afghan territory crashed in eastern Afghanistan's Khost province on Saturday.
Fitrat further mentioned that at least 52 people were killed and 66 others were injured in Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan since last Sunday.
According to the official, the casualties were reported in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Paktika, Khost, and Kunar, as well as in southern Kandahar.
Additionally, Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani fighter jet in eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, and its pilot was captured alive, according to provincial police chief Mohibullah Hamas.
The jet, according to the official, was shot down by Afghan forces on Saturday morning and crashed in Jalalabad, the provincial capital.
The pilot, who ejected by parachute, was later captured, the official added.
Meanwhile, Sayed Tayeb Hemad, spokesman for Nangarhar provincial police, confirmed that the captured pilot is in police custody.
