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  "path": "/partner/afghan-pakistani-forces-battle",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-01T09:26:35.000Z",
  "site": "https://nukta.com",
  "textContent": "\n\n\n\nAfghan and Pakistani troops battled along their border, Afghan residents and officials told AFP on Sunday, with the fighting coming alongside multiple strikes.\n\nMonths of cross-border clashes have flared since Thursday when Afghanistan launched an offensive along the frontier, with Pakistani forces hitting back on the border and from the skies.\n\nA resident said \"it was very strong, which shook the area. There was smoke and fire coming out north of the airport\", describing the dawn raid as \"very terrifying\".\n\nThe provincial spokesman, Fazl ul Rahim Maskin Yar, said Pakistani jets \"attempted to bomb\" the base, but there were no casualties or damage.\n\nPakistan acknowledged bombing key cities Friday including Kabul and Kandahar, which is home to Afghanistan's supreme leader, but has not commented on Sunday's strikes.\n\nIn Kabul, AFP journalists heard an explosion followed by successive gunfire.\n\nTaliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said \"anti-aircraft fire is being directed at Pakistani aircraft\".\n\nThere was an increased presence of security forces in Kabul on Sunday, with more checkpoints in the city center.\n\nDrones were also heard by an AFP journalist in the border province of Khost, while in Jalalabad city -- between Kabul and the border -- an AFP photographer saw a jet.\n\nThe Afghan government's deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said Pakistani fire had killed 36 civilians across multiple provinces since Thursday, which Islamabad has not commented on.\n\nResidents in multiple areas of Afghanistan's Khost province told AFP the two sides were engaged in clashes overnight, while the spokesman for a military unit reported heavy fighting in neighboring Paktia province.\n\nAt Torkham border crossing -- a key gateway for Afghans returning from Pakistan -- fighting was reported by the Nangarhar province information department.\n\nAfghan officials said Thursday's border offensive was a response to earlier air strikes that killed civilians, which Pakistan said targeted militants.\n\n### 'Stop the war'\n\nOn Saturday, AFP spoke to Khost residents who had fled their homes near the frontier.\n\n\"We demand from the international community and the whole world to put pressure on Pakistan to stop the war,\" said 46-year-old displaced resident Javed, who only gave one name.\n\nDiplomatic efforts have failed to secure a truce, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar among those engaged in efforts to halt the fighting.\n\nIslamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government rejects.\n\nMany attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021, the year the Taliban authorities returned to power in Kabul.\n\nThis week's escalation marked the first time that Pakistan has focused its air strikes on Afghan government facilities, analysts noted, a stark change from previous operations that it said targeted militants.\n\nPakistan's information minister, Attaullah Tarar, said on Saturday that 41 locations across Afghanistan had been hit by air strikes since its operation began.\n\nMore than 350 Afghan soldiers have been killed in the fighting, the minister said.\n\nIslamabad said earlier 12 of its soldiers had been killed.\n\nCasualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.\n\nThe violence of recent days is the worst since October fighting killed more than 70 people on both sides, with land borders between the neighbors largely shut since.\n\nSeveral rounds of negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan last year followed a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey.",
  "title": "Afghan, Pakistani forces battle along the border"
}