Afghanistan’s Taliban said they launched airstrikes into Pakistani territory, while Islamabad said its forces had intercepted and shot down four rudimentary drones in the southern resource-rich province of Balochistan.
The Afghan defence ministry posted on X that it had carried out “air strikes” in Balochistan and northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that it said caused casualties among members of an ISIL (ISIS) affiliate. Pakistan’s military told a different story. The ISPR said the drones were detected immediately after crossing the border and were neutralised through “sophisticated countermeasures”, describing the launch as part of the Afghan Taliban’s “patronisation and support of terrorist outfits”.
Afghanistan has no fighter jets but is known to possess at least six aircraft and 23 helicopters, data from the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies shows. The Taliban’s military lacks a fully functional air force but has used small drones in fighting with Pakistan, targeting areas primarily in border regions — as Al Jazeera’s analysis of what happens next confirmed.
The drone attack came days after Pakistan launched cross-border strikes killing 29 militants in response to the Karachi Rangers compound assault on June 27. At least 28 civilians were killed and 49 injured in Monday’s airstrikes by Pakistan on its border with Afghanistan, in what Islamabad called retaliation for “terrorist attacks.” The Afghan Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said the Pakistani strikes killed 36 civilians — a figure Pakistan has not publicly addressed.
The Pattern That Won’t Break
“What had started in 2022 as occasional incidents and retaliations has, since 2025, become a consolidated pattern,” said Ricardo Alvarez, a research analyst tracking armed rebellions across South and Central Asia. “That does not mean escalation might not still occur. We have already seen an escalation between October 2025 and March 2026 rounds of conflict.”
A Quetta-based security analyst offered a sharper critique. “Pakistan has turned this into a kind of new normal, blaming its own security failures on Afghanistan,” Nasari said. “Attackers travel more than 1,200km from the Afghan border to reach Karachi, planning and organising with facilitators inside Pakistan itself.”
US News confirmed that Kabul’s defence ministry said separately its strikes targeted a centre in Pishin district, allegedly used to plan “subversive activities and attacks in Afghanistan.” Eastern Herald tracked the escalation sequence from Karachi through the border strikes to the drone retaliation.
The conflict between the allies turned foes has killed hundreds of people this year, with no results yet from efforts to ease tension mediated by China. The UK Special Envoy’s recent acknowledgement of Taliban support structures gave Pakistan’s narrative international backing — but backing has not produced Taliban action. The drones were rudimentary. Pakistan’s air defence network was not tested. But the symbolism — a government with no air force conducting an airstrike on a nuclear-armed neighbour — marks a new phase in the conflict.
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