Massive blast rocks Kabul; 'more than a dozen' killed after Pakistan airstrikes hit Afghanistan — Video

A massive explosion rocked Afghanistan's capital Kabul on Wednesday, reports on social media claimed. A video of the blast was shared on X, with the user claiming, "I was on the phone with my mother when it happened, and my heart sank as I heard the explosion, followed by the screams of my little nephews."

The incident was reported as the violence between Pakistan and Afghanistan flared up last week.

Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan escalated after the two countries traded fire along the border, killing dozens in multiple border regions.

According to reports, Pakistan carried out air strikes in Kabul last Thursday. Afghanistan retaliated on Saturday for what it called repeated violations of Afghan territory and airspace.

The Taliban government in Kabul launched an offensive along parts of its southern border in retaliation, prompting Islamabad to vow a strong response of its own.

Afghanistan had then claimed to have killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in overnight operations. However, Pakistan’s army said 23 troops were killed.

Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harbouring militant groups led by the Pakistani Taliban Tehreek-e-Taliban (TTP) on its soil, a claim Kabul denies.

Fighting erupts again, ‘30 Afghan Taliban fighters’ killed

Fighting erupted again on Wednesday before dawn, according to officials on both sides.

Officials said on Wednesday that more than a dozen Afghan civilians were killed and over 100 others were wounded in the renewed fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Security officials and television reports were quoted by the Associated Press as claiming that Pakistan’s military killed 30 Afghan Taliban fighters near Kurram in Afghanistan’s Khost province overnight, destroyed a large training facility in Afghanistan used by the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan TV, the main state-owned television station, reported later in the day that Afghanistan was seeking a ceasefire on the border near the village of Chaman where the fighting was concentrated.

Pakistani security officials and state-run media accused Afghan troops of “unprovoked fire” that was repulsed in Kurram, a district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, said Pakistan used light and heavy weapons in assaults on the Spin Boldak district in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, which lies opposite Pakistan’s southwestern border town of Chaman.

"Afghan forces returned fire and killed several Pakistani soldiers, seized military posts and captured weapons including tanks," Mujahid said.

Pakistan’s military rejected the Afghan claim Wednesday, saying in a statement that the fighting along the Chaman border was orchestrated by the Taliban in Afghanistan “through divided villages in the area, with no regard for the civilian population."

"The attack was repulsed by Pakistani forces, which killed between 15 and 20 Afghan Taliban and wounded many others in Spin Boldak, a border city in Afghanistan's Kandahar province," the military was quoted by AP as saying.

The renewed fighting underscores the simmering tension between the neighbors.

Pakistani state media said Tuesday night that the military targeted hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is a separate but allied group of the Afghan Taliban.