Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters 4th day

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former U.S. military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.

The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it's in “open war” with Afghanistan. The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.

Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkey in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.

On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m. The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.

There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.

Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a U.S. presence at the base.

The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.

Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.

The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years. Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.

After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”

In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.

Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer (12-square-mile) area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having sezied it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren't authorized to speak publicly.

In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”

Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.

The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.

Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.

Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.

There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.

Elena Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. Munir Ahmed contributed to this report from Islamabad.

A girl, who was injured in the overnight cross border fighting between Pakistan and Afghan forces, receives treatment at a hospital at Khar, in Bajaur, a district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering with Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo)

Villagers examine damages due to overnight cross border fighting between Pakistan and Afghan forces, at a village in Bajaur, a district of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering with Afghanistan, Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. (AP Photo)

Trucks are parked along roadside following cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghan forces, at near Torkham border crossing point, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Maaz Awan)

A man inspects a car damaged after a Pakistani strike in on a refugee camp in Takhta Pul district, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Sibghatullah)

Smoke emits from Afghan side as trucks are parked along roadside following cross-border clashes between Pakistan and Afghan forces, at near Torkham border crossing point, Pakistan, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Maaz Awan)

BRUSSELS (AP) — World leaders urged peace and a return to talks as the military strikes by the United States and Israel on Iran raised concerns about whether the violence could spread across the region and tensions rose with Iran vowing devastating blows after the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

A massive explosion rocked the Iranian capital on Sunday morning as the Israeli military said it was targeting the “heart” of the city after stating it cleared the path to Tehran the day before. Meanwhile, Iran pressed on with its retaliation campaign: Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain said they intercepted a barrage of missiles.

Oman, which served as an interlocutor between Tehran and Washington in recent nuclear talks, said an oil tanker in the strategic Strait of Hormuz came under attack and its port at Duqm, used by the U.S. Navy as a logistical hub and capable of hosting aircraft carriers, was targeted in a drone attack.

The demise of Khamenei, who had no designated successor, will likely throw Iran's future into uncertainty and exacerbate already growing concerns of a broader conflict.

Fears about the conflict spreading were amplified on Sunday, when British Defense Minister John Healey said Iranian missile and drone strikes came within a few hundred yards (meters) of a group of 300 British military personnel in Bahrain, and that two missiles were even fired in the direction of Cyprus, where the U.K. has bases.

“We don’t believe they were targeted at Cyprus, but nevertheless, it’s an example of how there is a very real and rising threat from a regime that is lashing out widely across the region, and that requires us to act,” Healey told Sky News.

He said British planes will intercept any Iranian drones and missiles they see.

The United States and Israel launched a major attack against Iran on Saturday, and U.S. President Donald Trump called on the Iranian public to “seize control of your destiny” by rising against the Islamic theocracy that has ruled the nation since 1979.

Top diplomats from the 27 European Union nations are holding an emergency meeting Sunday to discuss the situation around Iran and the next steps for the bloc.

“The Iranian regime’s indiscriminate attacks against its neighbours carry the risk of dragging the region into a broader war and we condemn this,” said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas as she announced the bloc’s meeting on Sunday. “It is essential that the war does not spread any further. The Iranian regime has choices to make.”

Pope Leo XIV said Sunday he was “profoundly concerned” about the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran and urged both sides to “stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”

During a U.N. Security Council on Saturday, the U.N. chief and many countries urged a halt to attacks and a return to negotiations to prevent the conflict from expanding further into the region and beyond.

Secretary-General António Guterres told the council that everything must be done to prevent an escalation. “The alternative,” he warned, “is a potential wider conflict with grave consequences for civilians and regional stability.”

Perhaps cautious about upsetting already strained relations with Trump, many nations, including several in the Middle East, refrained from commenting directly or pointedly on the joint strikes but condemned Tehran’s retaliation.

“Return to your senses ... and deal with your neighbors with reason and responsibility before the circle of isolation and escalation widens,” Anwar Gargash, an adviser to the United Arab Emirates’ president, told the Iranian theocracy on Sunday.

The 22-nation Arab League called the Iranian attacks “a blatant violation of the sovereignty of countries that advocate for peace and strive for stability.” That coalition of nations has historically condemned both Israel and Iran for actions it says risk destabilizing the region.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has privately urged Iran not to attack the kingdom, a Saudi diplomat said. Saudi Arabia reported what appeared to be attacks in Riyadh and the eastern region on Saturday, although no casualties were reported.

On Sunday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin blasted Khamenei’s killing, which he called “a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law."

“The blatant killing of the leader of a sovereign state and the incitement of regime change are unacceptable,” China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said in a phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, according to China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

“These actions violate international law and the basic norms governing international relations.”

He said attacking a sovereign state without U.N. Security Council authorization undermines the foundation for peace established after World War II.

At least nine people were killed in clashes with police Sunday after hundreds of protesters stormed the U.S. Consulate in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, authorities said.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, tens of thousands of people on Sunday staged massive demonstrations to denounce Khamenei’s killing by the U.S. and Israel.

Demonstrations were also held from New York to Berlin and beyond by members of the Iranian diaspora and their supporters, celebrating the end of Khamenei’s rule.

Iranians in Berlin were seen cheering and dancing to loud music on Saturday afternoon in celebration. Some of the demonstrators waved flags of the Iranian monarchy, with German, Israeli, and U.S. flags also on display. Hopeful Iranians also took to the streets in multiple U.S. cities.

Ciobanu reported from Warsaw and Metz from Ramallah, West Bank. Reporters around the world contributed to this report.

People march during a protest in New York, on Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, against U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. (AP Photo/Kena Betancur)

Iranian people attend a demonstration in support of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Iranian people attend a demonstration in support of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Smoke rises up after a strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A protester holds a crown in London, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026 after U.S. and Israeli forces carried out a series of strikes on Iran on Saturday morning. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz speaks before media members as he visits facilities of Siemens Energy during his official visit, in Hangzhou, China, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Andres Martinez Casares/Pool Photo via AP)

British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer speaks with students and staff, during a visit to the Walbottle Academy Campus in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Scott Heppell/PA via AP)