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  "path": "/news/analysis/from-allies-to-enemies-pakistan-and-afghanistan-in-open-war",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-05T16:31:43.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gzeromedia.com",
  "tags": [
    "Afghanistan",
    "Iran",
    "Israel",
    "Pakistan",
    "United states",
    "_according_",
    "_nearly 66,000 people_",
    "_calls for negotiations_",
    "_fighting_",
    "_launched airstrikes_",
    "_killing 13 civilians_",
    "_suicide bombing_",
    "_to verify_",
    "_claims_",
    "_described TTP fighters as “guests”_",
    "_shown_",
    "_**Baitullah Mehsud**_",
    "_unify_",
    "_emirate_",
    "_targets_",
    "_military-run businesses_",
    "_claimed_",
    "_funneled_",
    "_a bulwark against long-standing rival India_",
    "_recognized the Taliban regime_",
    "_establishment of a US-backed government_",
    "_sought refuge_",
    "_Federally Administered Tribal Areas_",
    "_cracking down_",
    "_split_",
    "_unilaterally ended_",
    "_said_",
    "_to have diffused tensions_",
    "_key ally_"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nWhile Iran fights in a new war against Israel and the United States, its neighbors to the east have been drawn into a conflict of their own. Growing violence between Pakistan and Afghanistan has escalated into “open war,” _according_ to Pakistan's Defense Minister **Khawaja Muhammad Asif**. The United Nations says _nearly 66,000 people_ __ have been displaced after a week of hostilities along the countries’ shared border.\n\n* * *\n\nDespite _calls for negotiations_ from Turkey, which, along with Qatar, had mediated a ceasefire between the parties in October 2025, neither side appears willing to come to the table. Observers say the _fighting_ is the fiercest in years between Pakistan, which has one of the largest militaries in Asia, and Afghanistan, which has extensive experience in guerrilla warfare with its Taliban rulers.\n\n**How tensions boiled over**\n\nEarlier this month, Pakistani forces _launched airstrikes_ into eastern Afghanistan targeting camps belonging to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters, near the border,_killing 13 civilians_ according to the UN. Pakistan said the strikes were in retaliation for a series of TTP terror attacks in Pakistan over the last few weeks, including a _suicide bombing_ near the Afghan border on February 17 that killed 10 Pakistani security personnel.\n\nSoon afterward, Afghanistan's defense ministry said Taliban forces captured a ⁠Pakistani military post in the southern Kandahar region. Pakistan reported fighting at more than two dozen locations, including a weapons storage facility in Jalalabad and a military base in Nangarhar province, just across the Afghan border.\n\nMany of these claims are difficult for news outlets _to verify_, but the Afghanistan Defense Ministry claims that 110 civilians, including 65 women and children, had been killed and 123 wounded. It puts its own troop losses at 150, while Pakistan says more than 430 Afghan soldiers have been killed.\n\nAt the center of the confrontation is Pakistan’s repeated accusation that Kabul harbors the TTP, whose members have killed hundreds of Pakistani security forces in a yearslong insurgency. Kabul denies these charges and _claims_ that Pakistan's “unprovoked” actions constitute a violation of Afghan sovereignty. However, in 2024, Taliban Information Minister Khairullah Khairkhwa _described TTP fighters as “guests”_ whom the Afghan nation has a commitment to safeguard. Reports have _shown_ that the Taliban provides the TPP with refuge at the very least.\n\n**What is the TTP?**\n\nFounded by the late Pakistani militant _**Baitullah Mehsud**_ in 2007, the TTP sought to _unify_ a number of hardline Sunni Islamist groups. The group is often referred to as the Pakistani Taliban since it was inspired by and aligns itself with the Afghan Taliban. Today, it’s estimated at around 30,000 members. According to the UN Security Council, the TTP’s objective is to remove the Pakistani government and “establish an _emirate_ based on its interpretation of Islamic law.”\n\nThe group _targets_ Pakistani military installations and _military-run businesses_, with suicide bombings killing hundreds of members of the Pakistan defense forces, law enforcement personnel, and civilians. In 2018, a TPP leader _claimed_ the group was responsible for the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister **Benazir Bhutto** in 2007. The group has also intensified attacks in Pakistan since the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021, and the Taliban was able to return to power.\n\n**From allies to adversaries**\n\nThe two countries haven’t always been at odds. After the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Islamabad _funneled_ covert American aid to the Afghan mujahideen, Islamist guerrilla fighters who resisted Soviet occupation. Following the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, Afghanistan descended into civil war between rival mujahideen groups. Out of that turmoil, the Taliban emerged, pledging stability to a country exhausted by conflict. Pakistan initially supported the Taliban as _a bulwark against long-standing rival India_, which was also seeking influence in Afghanistan.\n\nIn 1996, Pakistan, together with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates,_recognized the Taliban regime_ and provided it with military support and resources. But that regime collapsed in late 2001, after the US and its allies occupied Afghanistan when it refused to hand over the leader of Al-Qaeda and mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks. The intervention led to the _establishment of a US-backed government_**** in Afghanistan.\n\nSome Afghan Taliban fighters fled and _sought refuge_ in Pakistan with local jihadists. They regrouped in the so-called _Federally Administered Tribal Areas_ (FATA), a semi-autonomous region in the northwest. From there, the Taliban rebuilt their command structure.\n\nUnder US pressure, the Pakistani government began _cracking down_on militant sanctuaries inside the country. Pakistan’s violent campaign ultimately spurred militants in the territory to unite under a new banner: the TTP, formed six years after the US invasion of Afghanistan and aligned with both the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda.\n\nTensions between Kabul and Islamabad also take root over the Durand Line, a 2,600-kilometer border that was drawn during British colonial rule. The border _split_ the lands of the Pashtun people, an ethnic group with a large presence in both countries, prompting calls for “Pashtunistan,” an independent state encompassing Pashtun areas on both sides of the border. It has been a major flashpoint involving forces from both sides of the border, including the TTP. In November 2022, the TTP _unilaterally ended_ a ceasefire with Islamabad after negotiations on the border dispute collapsed.\n\n**Could the US get involved?**\n\nWhen asked last Friday whether he would intervene to stop clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan, US **President Donald Trump** _said_, “Well, I would. I get along with Pakistan, as you know, very well.” Trump has claimed _to have diffused tensions_ between India and Pakistan that surfaced in May 2025 by threatening to cut trade ties. Washington also considers Islamabad a _key ally_ and designates the Afghan Taliban as a terrorist group.\n\nBut the day after Trump made his comments, the US began its war against Iran, which is now consuming political oxygen across the globe. International pressure from Washington or Turkey may also not be enough to de-escalate the situation. Kabul hasn't shown willingness to crack down on the TTP, and the TTP doesn’t appear to be handicapped by Pakistani attacks against them. Those two factors indicate that the conditions that fueled the “open war” between the former allies are unlikely to disappear anytime soon.",
  "title": "From allies to enemies: Pakistan and Afghanistan in “open war”"
}