Afghan capital Kabul hit by Pakistani airstrikes

Kabul, March 1 : Afghanistan's capital, Kabul, was attacked by Pakistani air power at around 5:40 a.m. local time on Sunday, triggering a series of explosions and the Afghan air defence forces' fire response against aerial targets.

This round of airstrikes lasted for about 20 minutes.

In recent days, military tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have escalated, with several rounds of exchange of fire, reports Xinhua news agency.

Earlier, deputy spokesman of the Afghan government, Hamdullah Fitrat, said that three Afghan returnees lost their lives and seven others were injured after Pakistani forces struck a temporary camp of returnees in southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province on Saturday.

Pakistani forces launched the airstrikes and bombarded the temporary camp of returnees in Kandahar at 08:30 a.m. local time on Saturday, Fitrat said in a statement posted on his social media X.

In a related development, an Afghan official claimed that a pilotless aircraft allegedly sent by Pakistan to attack Afghan territory crashed in the eastern Afghanistan Khost province on Saturday.

Fitrat further mentioned that at least 52 people were killed and 66 others injured in Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan since last Sunday.

According to the official, the casualties were reported across the eastern provinces of Nangarhar, Paktika, Khost and Kunar, as well as southern Kandahar.

Additionally, Afghan forces shot down a Pakistani fighter jet in eastern Nangarhar province on Saturday, and its pilot has been captured alive, provincial police chief Mohibullah Hamas said.

The jet, according to the official, was shot down by Afghan forces on Saturday morning and crashed in Jalalabad, the provincial capital.

The pilot, who ejected by parachute, was later captured, the official added.

Meanwhile, Sayed Tayeb Hemad, spokesman for Nangarhar provincial police, confirmed that the captured pilot is in police custody.