Pakistan-Afghanistan Border Clashes Intensify as Both Sides Claim Victory

QUETTA, — September 25, 2026 — Fighting intensified along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border overnight, with Islamabad and Kabul issuing sharply different accounts of clashes near the Gulistan sector in Balochistan and Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak district. Pakistan said its forces stopped an attempted incursion and killed Afghan Taliban personnel, while Afghan authorities said their forces destroyed a Pakistani military post after Pakistani troops opened fire toward Afghan positions. Neither side’s battlefield claims have been independently verified. (Reuters) (Arab News)

Pakistan’s Information Ministry said an attempted Afghan attack took place in the Gulistan sector during the night of September 24-25. Islamabad later said at least 13 Afghan Taliban personnel were killed and several others wounded in what it described as retaliatory action against Taliban positions. Pakistani security sources told Reuters that intermittent firing continued and that troops remained on alert. (Reuters) (Arab News)

Afghanistan’s account was different. The Afghan Defense Ministry said its forces had destroyed a Pakistani military post near Spin Boldak after Pakistani troops allegedly opened fire toward Afghan territory. Afghan authorities said their forces suffered no casualties or damage in the confrontation. Pakistan rejected the claim as fabricated. (Arab News)

Afghan media also reported fighting around the Karwan Go and Kargo Ghar areas of Spin Boldak. Safir TV, citing Afghan security and local sources, said Afghan forces targeted a Pakistani military position after mortar fire and claimed Pakistani casualties, while also reporting that the situation later became quieter. Those claims have not been independently confirmed. (Safir TV) (تلویزیون سفیر)

The competing accounts come less than 24 hours after Pakistan conducted air and drone strikes at 10 locations inside Afghanistan. Islamabad said those locations were being used to launch or store drones after Pakistan reported intercepting eight drones that it said had entered its airspace from Afghanistan. Afghan officials denied launching the drones and said Pakistani strikes hit areas of Khost, Kandahar and Paktia. (Al Jazeera; Amu TV)

Images emerging from Afghanistan on Thursday showed Taliban security personnel inspecting damage in Khost after what Afghan authorities described as Pakistani airstrikes. Reuters photographs carried by international outlets showed security personnel examining rubble in Gurbuz district. The images document damage at the location but do not independently establish which side was responsible for the strike. (Reuters) (Al Jazeera)

The latest fighting follows a rapid deterioration in relations after nearly three months of relative calm. Pakistan has accused militant groups operating from Afghanistan of carrying out attacks inside Pakistan, while the Taliban government rejects the allegation and says Pakistan’s security problems are an internal matter. (AP; Reuters)

The latest confrontation also threatens diplomatic efforts involving China, Türkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia aimed at reducing tensions between Islamabad and Kabul. With both governments presenting conflicting accounts of the overnight fighting and neither side's casualty claims independently verified, the immediate scale of the confrontation remains unclear. (Al Jazeera)