Pakistan & Afghanistan Exchange Heavy Fire After Short-Lived Truce

The prior truce between warring neighbors Pakistan and Afghanistan has been breaking down since last week. Some analysts are calling it a ceasefire in name only.

The globe’s attention has been on the Iran conflict, but heavy AfPak fighting has been on for almost the exact same length of time as Trump’s Operation Epic Fury against Iran. But it hasn’t received much attention in international headlines.

Earlier this month a short-lived truce had been announced by the two sides just ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, which was on March 20.

But clashes erupted Sunday between Kunar Province and Bajaur District, with both sides reportedly deploying heavy weapons and artillery, amid international reports of at least one dead and 16 wounded – mostly women and children – per Afghan Taliban officials.

Islamabad is downplaying the flare-up in fighting, however. “Some minor violations took place from the Afghan side and we responded to it in the same sector,” a Pakistan government official has said. These statements have suggested a mere exchange of border shelling.

In late February Pakistan declared “open war” against Afghanistan, launching drone and missile strikes not just on Taliban border positions, but on Kabul itself, amid accusations that the Taliban has been sponsoring terror attacks against Pakistan cities and even mosques.

The single deadliest incident came from an alleged Pakistani airstrike on a drug treatment center and civilian hub:

Kabul said more than 400 people were killed in a Pakistani air strike on a drug rehabilitation center ​in the Afghan capital ​this month before ⁠the neighbors suspended fighting.

Pakistan rejected the Taliban’s statements about the strike, saying it had “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support infrastructure”.

Somewhat ironically, Islamabad is currently playing host to peace talks among regional powers which are trying to get Washington and Tehran to the same negotiating table.

At least 400 people were killed and 250 injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug users rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, a spokesman of the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbours. pic.twitter.com/m7U54J6SnB

— Reuters (@Reuters) March 17, 2026

Any further destabilization inside Afghanistan could have further negative repercussions in the country’s neighbor to the West, Iran. The Islamic Republic already plays host to an estimated more than 3 million Afghan refugees. This crisis could soon grow worse, as now Tehran struggles under US-Israeli bombs.