{"id":6250,"date":"2025-01-24T09:04:33","date_gmt":"2025-01-24T09:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/?p=6250"},"modified":"2025-01-24T09:04:33","modified_gmt":"2025-01-24T09:04:33","slug":"afghan-forces-target-pakistan-in-retaliation-for-deadly-airstrikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/2025\/01\/24\/afghan-forces-target-pakistan-in-retaliation-for-deadly-airstrikes\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan forces target Pakistan in retaliation for deadly airstrikes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/afghanistan-pakistan-border-strikes-7dbd4af5dce9c2e9016d429253467312<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December, Pakistan launched airstrikes into the Barmal district in Afghanistan that they claimed were intended to destroy an insurgent military training camp. Afghan officials stated that the airstrikes actually hit refugee camps. 50 people were killed by Pakistan’s attacks, half of which were women and children. This outraged Afghans, leading the Taliban to launch counter attacks on Pakistan. Taliban officials claimed that their targets were hideouts of malicious groups and people who organized the attacks on Afghanistan. While sources are limited, one source says the counter attacks killed 19 militants and 3 civilians. This retaliation was widely approved amongst Afghan citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Afghanistan has never recognized Pakistan’s borders, causing deep tension between the two states since Pakistan’s independence. In addition to border conflicts, the two countries tend to trade blame for each harboring terrorists that attack the other, consequently initiating conflicts such as this one. Most recently, Pakistan has seen an increase in violence by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) the past 2-3 years and claims that the Afghan Taliban—which is currently the de facto governing body of Afghanistan—has been protecting members of the TTP, as the two groups are close allies. The TTP has been a long-time issue for Pakistan, and the government has been fighting to end its terrorism for decades. Pakistan’s actions could’ve been an attempt to deter the Taliban from harboring TTP members or an attack on what they feared to be TTP camps. Pakistan has also been deporting Afghan immigrants due to the violence in Pakistan tied to the Taliban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The severe tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan make it incredibly easy for conflict to be initiated between the two countries. If the TTP continues to be an issue for Pakistan, and Afghanistan continues to allow and support the terrorist group’s actions, the conflict may escalate further. Due to the unstable nature of the Middle East, the conflict could easily spill into the rest of the region, bringing other states into the conflict and contributing to the escalation of other conflicts in the region, such as the war against Palestine. India, which has very hostile relations with Pakistan, could also potentially become involved in the larger conflict. The conflict has the risk of spreading both westward and eastward if it escalates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both countries operate from offensive realist approaches to national security, as they are quick to use military force to ensure their security when a threat or conflict is established. Pakistan, the first to strike in this conflict, sees the TTP as a major threat to its national security due to the group’s violent actions. Because Afghanistan’s Taliban government supported the TTP, Afghanistan became a perceived threat as well, and Pakistan attempted to take action to ensure its security. The attack created a certain national security threat for Afghanistan, prompting their counter attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/afghanistan-pakistan-border-strikes-7dbd4af5dce9c2e9016d429253467312 In December, Pakistan launched airstrikes into the Barmal district in Afghanistan that they claimed were intended to destroy an insurgent military training camp. Afghan officials stated that the airstrikes actually hit refugee camps. 50 people were killed by Pakistan’s attacks, half of which were women and children. This outraged Afghans, leading the Taliban to launch counter attacks on Pakistan…. Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":294,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analysis-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/294"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6250"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6252,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6250\/revisions\/6252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/southandcentralasiablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}