Afghanistan attacks Pakistan border region.

 

Afghan troops patrolling near the Pakistani border in abandoned US Humvees. BBC/AFP.

Afghanistan has attacked the Pakistan border region in retaliation for an airstrike. BBC. Pakistan and Afghanistan have differing claims on casualties but both acknowledge that the attacks occurred. Pakistan bombed a market in Kabul last week, claiming it was a hotbed of terrorist activity. Pakistan has long accused the Taliban of harboring the Pakistani Taliban, also known as the TPP, which have launched several attacks against Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban, which now rules the country, has always denied connections to the TPP. The move comes as Afghanistan has attempted to reform their image and reopen ties with other countries, finding success at normalizing relations with Pakistan's historic enemy, India. 

My Comment:

Interesting situation on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. Both sides are claiming they beat back the other side in this border raid. Without a neutral third party, it's pretty impossible to tell which side got the worse of this conflict, and I would believe either side. Both the Taliban and Pakistan are well equipped and are battle hardened.  

It is frustrating to see the Taliban using US equipment in this conflict, regardless of your opinion of it. There is zero reason that we left behind all the weapons, vehicles and equipment for the Taliban to use against their enemies. They never should have been allowed to keep all of this stuff and it should have either been recovered or destroyed during our withdrawal. 

As for who is in the right here, I don't think either side is blameless. I do think that the Taliban is probably tolerating, if not actively helping, the TPP. The Taliban tolerates the TPP But I also don't understand how bombing markets in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan is going to help and doing so is pretty obviously an act of war. Supposedly a few high ranking TPP militants were killed in this attack, so it's not like the Pakistani forces were totally off base, but they did cause some collateral damage. 

I am assuming that this will be the end of it for now. This was a tit-for-tat attack and it's something that the Taliban and Pakistan have done before, since the Taliban took over. There have been airstrikes and border skirmishes before and they never erupted into a full scale war. Indeed, the previous skirmishes have been exactly the same as these attacks now, so this really isn't unprecedented. 

And it's not like either side is really for war. Pakistan has serious economic issues and is threatened by India, so they have a major incentive to avoid a major conflict. The Taliban have major issues of their own, not the least of which is that they have no real allies and are international pariahs. They also have their own problem with terrorists, as ISIS-K remains a major force in Afghanistan. Indeed, that's a major reason why they tolerate the TPP in the first place. 

The Elephant in the room is, of course, India. These strikes occurred while a major Afghan diplomat  Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was visiting India and a major normalization of relations between India and Afghanistan. India still hasn't recognized the Taliban but they are re-opening their embassy and providing them additional assistance. This has obviously infuriated Pakistan and may be a major reason why they launched the airstrikes in the first place.