And while everyone was awaiting developments from the negotiations in Geneva in order to clarify the landscape regarding whether or not a military attack by the US against Iran is imminent, a new front erupted between Pakistan and the Taliban who rule in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, which heavily bombed Taliban targets in major cities of Afghanistan, speaks of “open war”, with the Taliban maintaining that they are ready to defend every inch of their territory.
The first reports from the bombings as well as from the ground battles that have broken out along the 2,600 kilometer border between the two states speak of approximately 200 dead and hundreds of wounded on both sides, although their estimates diverge significantly.
Meanwhile it was established that it was fake news. the video widely circulating on social media kai claiming that India and Israel had announced the creation of an axis in favor of the Taliban targeting Pakistan.
Exporting terrorism, became puppets of India
Pakistan Defense Minister Khawaja Asif accused the Taliban of exporting terrorism from Afghanistan and declared open war.
“After the withdrawal of the NATO forces, it was expected that peace would prevail in Afghanistan and the Taliban would focus on the interests of the Afghan people and on peace in the region.
However, the Taliban turned Afghanistan into a colony of India.
They gathered in Afghanistan all the terrorists of the world and began to export terrorism.
They removed from their own people basic human rights.
They removed the rights that Islam guarantees to women.
Pakistan made every effort to maintain normality, both by direct means and through friendly states.
It conducted full diplomacy.
But the Taliban became puppets of India.
Today, when attempts of aggression are made against Pakistan, our forces give a decisive response.
Our patience has been exhausted.
Now it is open war with you.
The army of Pakistan did not come from the sea. We are your neighbors, we know all your particularities” maintained the Defense Minister of Pakistan.
Pakistan accuses the Taliban of providing shelter to fighters who carry out attacks within Pakistan.
The Taliban have denied the accusation and have stated that the security of Pakistan constitutes its internal matter.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif stated that his country’s armed forces have “full capability to crush any aggressive ambitions”.
Heavy bombardments
As became known Pakistan proceeded to heavy bombardments and air raids in areas of Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia.
It is recalled that Pakistan has strong air superiority against the Taliban.
Video shared by Pakistani security officials showed flashes of light in the night from fire along the border and the sound of heavy artillery.
Video from strikes in Kabul showed dense clouds of black smoke rising from two points and a huge fire in part of the capital Kabul.
? BIG BREAKING NEWS?
— Afghanistan Defense (@AFGDefense) February 27, 2026
This is a Pakistani military F-16, American-made, that Afghan defensive forces have shot down. pic.twitter.com/7qBAjv89rk
Another video showed a building in flames, which, according to officials, was a Taliban headquarters in Paktia province.
“Pakistani counterstrikes against targets in Afghanistan continue”, stated in his post on X the government spokesperson of Pakistan Mosharraf Zaidi, describing the action as a response to “unprovoked Afghan attacks”.
Battles on the border
Although Pakistan possesses air power, the Taliban possess enormous experience in ground battles.
The Armed Forces of Afghanistan announced that, in response to the bombings, they had launched large scale offensive military operations against centers and installations of the Pakistani forces along the Durand Line that separates the country.
According to a spokesperson of the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan, the operation began in various directions in the provinces of Host, Paktia, Nuristan and in several other areas.
Subsequently the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan announced the completion of the military operation against Pakistan.
“At midnight, following a direct order of the chief of the general staff of the armed forces of the Islamic Emirate, the military operation was successfully completed” announced the Ministry of Defense of Afghanistan.
Decisive strikes
It is supported that Afghanistan launched during the night “decisive strikes”, responding to the “brazen aggression of the Pakistani military regime against Afghan territory, which led to the death of innocent women and children”.
“Exactly at 20:00, our forces struck Pakistani military outposts along the Durand Line in the eastern and southeastern provinces, including Paktika, Paktia, Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan”, it is clarified in the announcement.
According to the Afghan Ministry of Defense, as a result of the operation the losses of the opponent amounted to 55 dead.
Two military bases and 19 military outposts were captured.
It is also supported that four checkpoints “were abandoned by the enemy”, who “fled in terror”.
“Dozens of units of light and heavy weaponry, a large warehouse of ammunition and military equipment were seized.
An enemy battle tank was destroyed and a large military transport vehicle was captured”, the announcement states.
Live prisoners
It is also made known that several bodies of Pakistani soldiers were collected and transferred to Afghanistan, several soldiers of the opponent were captured alive, while “many fled humiliated”.
According to the government of the Taliban, the Afghan side also suffered losses, eight soldiers were killed and 13 were wounded.
In addition, 13 Afghan civilians, among them women and children, were wounded by rocket bombardments of the opponent in a refugee camp in Nangarhar province.
The leadership of the Ministry of Defense stresses that “all operational objectives were achieved with precision and bravery”. The Ministry underlines that “any violation of Afghan territory will be met with fire, steel and revenge”.
Dead and wounded
For its part Pakistan provides completely different numbers.
Specifically, Zaidi stated that 133 Afghan Taliban fighters were killed and more than 200 were wounded, while 27 positions were destroyed and nine were captured.
Pakistani VS Afghanistan
— Warfare Analysis (@warfareanalysis) February 27, 2026
In ground military combat, the Pakistani army collapsed.
The Pakistani army has air superiority, similar to Israel.
However, in direct combat, it did not stand a chance against the Afghans.
Most of its military posts along the Durand Line fell… pic.twitter.com/FzuSs75XN4
Highest alert
Pakistan has been on the highest security alert since it launched air raids earlier this week, which, according to Islamabad, targeted camps of Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP), namely the Pakistani Taliban, as well as fighters of the Islamic State in eastern Afghanistan.
Kabul stated that the strikes killed 13 civilians and reiterated that it does not allow fighters to operate from its territory.
The Taliban also warned that there will be a strong response.
Suicide bombers
A state media outlet from Nangarhar of Afghanistan, the Bakhtar News Agency, published an image of what it described as a battalion of suicide bombers and cited an Afghan security source stating that the bombers were equipped with explosive vests and booby trapped cars and were ready to strike significant targets.
Pakistani officials have stated in recent days that they fear an escalation of fighter attacks in urban centers.
Kabul stated that the group was not based in Afghanistan and that the battle against it was characterized as an internal matter of Pakistan.
Tensions escalate
The situation between Islamabad and Kabul escalated after Pakistan’s air raids on the capital of Afghanistan on the night of 9 October.
According to some reports, they killed three leaders of the Pakistani Taliban and destroyed many commercial buildings in Paktia province
After this, the Afghan Ministry of Defense announced a “retaliatory operation” and battles broke out on the border between the two countries.
This continued until 15 October, when the two sides reached a temporary ceasefire agreement and began negotiations to ensure peace on the border.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent months, with land border crossings remaining largely closed since the deadly clashes of October that cost the lives of more than 70 people on both sides.
Pakistan vs Afghanistan
Military analysts argue that in the ground military clashes, the Pakistani army collapsed.
The Pakistani army possesses air superiority, similar to that of Israel, however it is estimated that in direct battle it has no chance against the Afghans.
Most of its military positions along the Durand Line fell within a few hours into the hands of the Afghans.
The Pakistani army cannot carry out air strikes on the bases and military outposts that have been captured, due to the presence of its own personnel.
However, it can conduct air raids far from the battlefield, something that could lead to massacres such as the one it committed on 22 February, when it eliminated an entire family of 18 members, leaving only a few survivors.
Such actions would further damage the already burdened public image of the Pakistani army.
The difference between the Afghan army and the Pakistani army lies in their military doctrine.
The Afghans have proclaimed an Islamic religious military doctrine.
However, the Pakistani army, like the Pakistani state, suffers from an identity crisis.
With the involvement of the army in politics and in business, it has further weakened itself.
Comparison of the two armies
The armed forces of Pakistan benefit from strong recruitment and retention of personnel, reinforced by equipment from its main military partner, China.
Islamabad continues to invest in its military nuclear programs and is also modernizing its navy and air force.
In contrast, the armed forces of the Afghan Taliban are in decline, with reduced ability to use foreign equipment that they had captured when they returned to power in the landlocked country in 2021.
The lack of international recognition for the Taliban administration has also affected the modernization of the armed forces.
Pakistan has 660.000 active personnel in its armed forces, of which 560.000 in the army, 70.000 in the air force and 30.000 in the navy.
The strength of the Afghan Taliban is much smaller, with only 172.000 active personnel.
However, the group has announced plans to expand its armed forces to 200.000 members.
Armored vehicles and artillery
Pakistan has more than 6.000 armored combat vehicles and more than 4.600 pieces of artillery.
The Afghan forces also have armored vehicles, including Soviet type main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers and autonomous underwater vehicles, but their exact number is unknown.
Similarly, the exact number of their artillery, of at least three different types, is not known.
Air force
Pakistan has a fleet of 465 fighter aircraft and more than 260 helicopters, including multi role, attack and transport.
Afghanistan does not have fighter aircraft and essentially has no air force.
It is known that it has at least six aircraft, some of them Soviet era, and 23 helicopters, although it is not possible to estimate how many are in flight condition.
Pakistan is a nuclear weapons country and has 170 warheads, while Afghanistan has no nuclear arsenal.
Fake news about India - Israel axis in favor of Taliban and against Pakistan
At the same time a manipulated video widely circulating on social media claims that, during his historic visit to Israel on 25 February 2026, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stated that India and Israel would extend “every possible cooperation” to the regime of the Afghan Taliban.
The excerpt, which was reproduced by some journalists and social media users, presented this claim as a new India–Israel axis targeting Pakistan, amid the escalating clashes on the Pakistan - Afghanistan border.
It also claimed that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed similar support during a joint press conference with Modi, including references to aid packages.
However, it later became known that Modi did not hold a joint press conference with the Israeli Prime Minister and that the two leaders addressed separately the Israeli Parliament (Knesset), where Netanyahu made no reference to Afghanistan, the Taliban or Pakistan.
According to the Office of the Indian Prime Minister, this was the first speech by an Indian prime minister in the Israeli Parliament, and in this speech Modi emphasized the need to further strengthen relations between the two countries.
Indeed, journalists examined in detail the speeches of both prime ministers and found no reference to Afghanistan, the Taliban or Pakistan.
Netanyahu, in fact, stated in his speech that Israel is on the front line of the fight against radical Islam.
The deepfake video also showed Modi mentioning the name of the supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mullah Haibatullah, and announcing billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan.
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