Why are Afghanistan and Pakistan fighting?

Residents of Kabul's District 6 were awakened abruptly on Thursday night by the sound of an explosion that shook their homes. They rushed out in the street and heard jets flying overhead.

It was a night that saw a serious escalation in violence between Afghanistan and Pakistan, with Pakistan launching airstrikes in Afghanistan - including its capital city, Kabul. Other places struck were in Paktia and Kandahar provinces, the latter a stronghold and the birthplace of the Taliban movement.

Hostilities between the two sides have been ongoing for months, yet the answer to who started the aggression depends on who you ask.

Earlier in the night, Afghanistan's Taliban government said it had launched a major ground operation against Pakistani military positions near the border, claiming to have captured several posts, and also claiming to have captured and killed Pakistani soldiers.

The Taliban government says they were "retaliatory operations" - a response after "Pakistani military elements carried out an incursion into Afghan territory, violated Afghan sovereignty, and caused the deaths of several civilians, including women and children".

They were referring to an earlier round of Pakistani airstrikes carried out less than a week ago - on the night of 21 February - targeting the eastern Nangarhar and Paktika provinces. The United Nations has said it has credible reports that 13 Afghan civilians were killed in those strikes.

Islamabad has a different view. It says its airstrikes have not targeted civilians but instead have targeted militant hideouts in Afghanistan, specifically those of the Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or the Pakistani Taliban, which Pakistan's government refers to as Fitna al Khawarij.

Pakistan also alleges the attacks are being carried out at the behest of the TTP's Afghanistan-based leadership and handlers, who are being supported by the Taliban government.

The Taliban government repeatedly maintains that its territory is not being used to threaten the security of any country, and that Pakistan's actions in Afghanistan are "unprovoked".

Qatar and Turkey mediated between the two sides, with talks held in Doha and Istanbul. A fragile ceasefire followed, but the negotiations failed to bring about a ceasing of hostilities between the two sides.

Both countries blamed the other for not engaging seriously in diplomacy.

Militarily, Pakistan has the upper hand by a long mile. It is a significant military power with hundreds of tanks and aircraft, and advanced defence technology.

Afghanistan's Taliban government has military equipment left behind by the former Afghan and foreign forces. And despite sanctions, reports suggest it has been able to purchase some military equipment through the black market.

So far, there's no evidence that it has the planes or the capability to launch airstrikes deep into Pakistan.

But as a group, the Taliban sustained more than 20 years of war against the US and its Nato allies, so its capacity to carry out unconventional and guerrilla warfare is well evidenced.

And in the latest stand-off, the Taliban government used drones to strike targets in Pakistan. Drones, which are cheap, small and easy to use, will undoubtedly alter the nature of this conflict like they have changed battlefields around the world.

The difficulty with assessing how far the latest escalation might go, stems in part from the lack of verified information available from either side.

The Taliban government does not allow easy access to foreign journalists, and verifying information, particularly from border areas, is even more challenging.

In Pakistan too, gathering verified information from border areas independently is not easy.

Trade between the two countries has been closed since October 2025, the longest in decades which is affecting small businesses in Afghanistan, and the availability of supplies, including crucial medicines.

For ordinary Afghans, reeling under a severe crisis of hunger and poverty, and living under the Taliban government's stringent restrictions, the one positive since 2021 was that after four decades of war, they didn't have to worry about bombs falling on them and their families.

That feeling of relative security has now been punctured by the violence of the past six months.

Additional reporting by Usman Zahid and Mahfouz Zubaide