Pakistan said today (Thursday) that it launched air strikes targeting ten sites in Afghanistan that it described as being used to store drones and launch them towards Pakistan.
In a statement on “X”, Information Minister Atallah Tarar said that the strikes were “proportionate and strictly targeted” against military targets linked to attempts to launch attacks by Afghanistan.
Tarar added that Pakistani air defense systems detected and neutralized drones launched from Afghan territory yesterday, Wednesday, before they reached their targets.
Agence France-Presse quoted a resident of Kandahar as saying that an air strike targeted the city of Kandahar in southern Afghanistan, which is the main residence of the supreme leader of the Taliban. An eyewitness said he heard the sound of a jet plane, followed by a loud explosion and a fire in the city center.
It comes days after Pakistani bombing of the border area between the two countries. The United Nations reported that at least three civilians were killed as a result of the strikes that targeted eastern Afghanistan, while Pakistan announced that they killed 28 militants.
Although the border region is exposed from time to time to such strikes, raids on Afghan cities are rare of their kind.
Both Kandahar and the capital, Kabul, were bombed during the war that broke out between Afghanistan and Pakistan in late February, with weeks of violence killing hundreds of Afghan civilians, according to the United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
A ceasefire agreement concluded in March did not succeed in reaching a permanent settlement between the two neighbors, despite mediation efforts undertaken by several countries.
Islamabad accuses the Taliban government of harboring Pakistani Taliban militants who have been launching attacks against it for years.
Afghan officials deny this charge and respond that Pakistan is harboring groups hostile to them and does not respect their country's sovereignty.
The Pakistani strikes on the border region this week came after an attack targeting a police headquarters in northern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 31 people. A group linked to the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
Pakistani security forces thwarted an infiltration attempt by “terrorists” affiliated with the “Kharijite Sedition” group, to cross from Afghanistan to the “Kurram” sector, and responded immediately to fire fired by the Afghan “Taliban” movement.
On Wednesday, the Pakistani Associated Press quoted security sources as saying that the infiltration attempt “launched from positions belonging to the Afghan Taliban movement in the provinces of Nangarhar and Paktia, but the Pakistani forces deployed along the border responded to it and thwarted it effectively.”
She continued, "After the attempt was thwarted, the Afghan Taliban opened unprovoked weapons fire on Pakistani border points, using heavy and other weapons and mortar shells."
The same sources reported that Pakistani security forces “responded effectively and targeted a number of border points, mortar firing sites, and defensive sites belonging to the Afghan Taliban using light and heavy weapons, including artillery.”
She pointed out that “the intensified retaliatory operations forced the Afghan Taliban to abandon a number of positions and flee,” explaining that “the Pakistani security forces continue to impose full control over the border areas, and remain on high alert to respond immediately and decisively to any other provocations.”
It appears that North Korea has tested a hypersonic weapon capable of evading missile defense systems, which may make monitoring and intercepting it an extremely difficult task, according to what analysts reported to Agence France-Presse, today (Wednesday).
South Korea and Japan said that Pyongyang launched two short-range ballistic missiles off its eastern coast on Sunday, denouncing the launches as a threat to regional peace and security.
North Korea did not specify the type of weapon, saying only that its missile office “successfully tested a new type of weapon” in a display of what it described as “ultra-modern defense technology.”
Analysts said that the weapon appears to be an upgraded version of the Hwasongbu-11Ma-1, a short-range hypersonic ballistic missile.
Yang Moo-jin, former head of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, told Agence France-Presse that the hypersonic missile, which has a range of 450 to 600 kilometers, is “designed to strike major military facilities across the Korean peninsula within a very short period of time.”
Pictures published by Pyongyang's state media showed leader Kim Jong Un and his daughter Jo Ae watching a screen displaying what appeared to be the missile's flight path, with the words "Hwasongpo-11 MA-1 flight path."
The North Korean leader warned this week that the weapon's sophistication would cause opponents "an intractable headache and a very severe and inevitable blow," according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
Despite the United Nations sanctions imposed on it years ago, North Korea has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in its laws, while its leaders have repeatedly affirmed that its nuclear arsenal is permanent and irreversible.
Pyongyang also received key support from Russia, along with its traditional ally China, which reduced the incentives for it to return to a diplomatic track with Washington.
Ahn Chan-il, a researcher from North Korea, told the French Agency: “North Korea may exaggerate in talking about its capabilities, but it has clearly reached a stage where it is capable of launching weapons of this caliber.”
He added: “I believe that these tests are not aimed so much at developing its military capabilities as they are aimed at testing weapons produced by its defense industry to meet Russia’s needs during wartime.”
Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, North Korea has become a key ally of the Kremlin, sending forces to support the Russian war effort in exchange for economic benefits and military technology, according to analysts.
Hong Seung-pyo, a senior researcher at the Seoul-based Korea Institute of Military Affairs, said the use of this hypersonic weapon against South Korea would pose a serious threat.
He added to the French Agency: “But one successful test is not enough to prove his capabilities.” However, if it enters operational service, it will be very difficult to confront it.”
He continued: “Since it is able to maneuver while landing in the final stage of the flight path, detecting and intercepting it becomes more difficult compared to a traditional ballistic missile, especially at hypersonic speeds.”
