Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as
fighting enters 4th day
[March 02, 2026]
By ABDUL QAHAR AFGHAN and ELENA BECATOROS
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on
Bagram Air Base, the former U.S. military base north of Kabul,
authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan
and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years,
with Pakistan declaring that it's in “open war” with Afghanistan. The
conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the
area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and
the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to
resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant
groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its
archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and
suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense
fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed
to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally
traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is
located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had
entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at
around 5 a.m. The statement said Afghan forces responded with
“anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart
the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government
regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing
fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It
was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took
control in the wake of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country in
2021. Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to
reestablish a U.S. presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad
cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for
Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani
Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan
had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has
been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over
the years. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of
providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation
that Afghanistan denies.
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A girl, who was injured in the overnight cross border fighting
between Pakistan and Afghan forces, receives treatment at a hospital
at Khar, in Bajaur, a district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
province bordering with Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP
Photo)
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja
Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is
open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of
the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own
casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces
were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a
32-square-kilometer (12-square-mile) area in the southern Zhob
sector near Kandahar province, after having sezied it during
fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under
Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of
anonymity, because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy
government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into
Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb
Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the
provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani
fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan
forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border
from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He
said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of
Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in
Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while
mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia
province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani
officials.
___
Elena Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Munir Ahmed
contributed to this report from Islamabad.
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