Afghan officials said they had thwarted a Pakistani airstrike on the former U.S. base, Bagram airfield, amid an intensifying campaign that has targeted dozens of military sites across the country.

Pakistan has declared "open war" on Afghanistan after the Pakistani defense minister said patience has "run out" on repeated attacks by Afghan forces and the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan launched a

Pakistan and Afghanistan have continued trading attacks after Pakistan bombed Afghanistan’s two biggest cities in the early hours of Friday.

Iran, Afghanistan’s western neighbor, has also carried out expulsions, further straining resources in impoverished Afghanistan. The U.N.’s refugee agency says a total of 5.4 million people have returned to the country since October 2023, mostly from Pakistan and Iran.

Pakistan says it has killed hundreds of fighters in Afghanistan after declaring “open war” on the Taliban. On Friday, Pakistan launched air strikes on Kabul and two other Afghan provinces, which it said targeted ammunition depots, Taliban military installations and militant hideouts.

Pakistan struck Kabul and two other provinces hours after the Taliban launched cross-border attacks, in the latest escalation of violence between the two South Asian neighbors.

The South Asian allies-turned-foeshave engaged in their worst fighting in years following Pakistani air strikes on major Afghan ‌cities last week, raising fears of another ‌protracted conflict in a region also contending with U.