AFGHANISTAN said it downed a Pakistan fighter jet and captured its pilot on Saturday (28), a claim denied by Islamabad a day after it declared an "open war" with its south Asian neighbour.
The Afghan military and police said the aircraft was shot down in the eastern city of Jalalabad, but Islamabad's foreign ministry told AFP that it was "a false claim" and "totally untrue".
Pakistan launched air strikes in several cities and provinces on Friday (27) including the capital Kabul and Kandahar, where Afghan Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is based, in a flare-up of cross-border fighting.
The US voiced its diplomatic support for Pakistan's actions after Islamabad said it would not stop strikes that were meant to pressure the government in Kabul, which it accuses of backing militancy.
The Taliban government has denied harbouring militants and its spokesperson has called for "dialogue" to resolve a previously simmering conflict that Pakistan's defence minister said on Friday was now "open war".
An AFP journalist heard a jet flying over Jalalabad on Saturday, followed by the sound of two explosions from the direction of the Afghan city's airport.
Jalalabad residents told AFP that they saw a person who parachuted from the plane before being detained.
The pilot was "captured alive", said Jalalabad's police spokesman Tayeb Hammad and the military spokesman in eastern Afghanistan, Wahidullah Mohammadi.
The defence ministry in Kabul has also said it carried out air strikes on Pakistani territory over the past two days, which observers said could have been drones.
The Taliban government said its forces began a border offensive late on Thursday in response to Pakistani strikes. The uneasy neighbours have clashed at the border intermittently for months.
Pakistan's information minister said on Saturday that 37 locations across Afghanistan had been hit by air strikes since its operation began.
"Pakistan's immediate and effective response to aggression continues," Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan's prime minister, posted on X late on Friday.
The US "expressed support for Pakistan's right to defend itself against Taliban attacks", Allison Hooker, the under secretary of state for political affairs, wrote on X after talks with her Pakistani counterpart.
The European Union called for "immediate de-escalation and a halt of hostilities", adding in a statement by policy chief Kaja Kallas that "Afghan territory must not be used to threaten or attack other countries".
Saudi Arabia and Qatar engaged in efforts to halt the fighting, while China said it was "working with" both countries and called for calm.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Friday Afghan forces had killed 55 Pakistani soldiers and captured several others. He put the death toll among Afghan troops at 13.
Pakistan's Zaidi said 297 Afghan Taliban and militants had been killed. Islamabad said earlier 12 of its soldiers had been killed.
The Afghan government's deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said Pakistani fire overnight and early on Saturday had killed 11 residents in the border pronice of Kunar, with three more killed at a refugee camp in Kandahar.
Fitrat said earlier at least 19 civilians had been killed in eastern Khost and Paktika provinces. Casualty claims from both sides are difficult to verify independently.
This 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.
Relations between the neighbours have plunged in recent months, with land border crossings largely shut since fighting in October that killed more than 70 people on both sides.
Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of failing to act against militant groups that carry out attacks in Pakistan, which the Taliban government denies.
Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), a militant group that has stepped up assaults in Pakistan since 2021.
Pakistan's Zaidi told AFP on Saturday that there had been no reports of border clashes during the night, but that gunmen he said were associated with the Pakistani Taliban had attacked a checkpoint in the northwest. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for that attack.
Several rounds of negotiations between Pakistan and Afghanistan last year followed a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey. Those efforts have failed to produce a lasting agreement.
Saudi Arabia intervened this month after repeated breaches of the initial truce, mediating the release of three Pakistani soldiers captured by Afghanistan in October.
(AFP)
