By Krishna Dua 
Pakistan Airstrikes Rock Kabul, TTP Camps Hit
October 10, 2025—In a brazen and unprecedented escalation of cross-border hostilities, Pakistan conducted precision airstrikes on suspected Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) camps in Kabul on the night of October 9, 2025, marking the first direct military action by Islamabad on Afghan soil targeting the group’s leadership in the capital city. The operation, involving at least three F-16 fighter jets armed with laser-guided munitions, struck a compound in the heavily guarded Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, a diplomatic enclave, resulting in at least 12 deaths and 25 injuries, according to Afghan health officials. Pakistani sources claim the raid eliminated TTP chief Noor Wali Mehsud and several high-ranking commanders, though the Taliban vehemently denies this, vowing “severe retaliation” for what they term a “cowardly violation of sovereignty.”
The strikes, codenamed “Operation Iron Fist” by anonymous Pakistani military insiders, come amid a surge in TTP attacks that have claimed over 500 Pakistani lives in 2025, including a September 15 assault on a Bannu military convoy that killed 22 soldiers. Pakistan’s Army Chief, General Asim Munir, justified the action in a televised address on October 10 morning, stating, “The TTP’s sanctuaries in Afghanistan pose an existential threat to our nation. This pre-emptive strike is self-defense—no country can harbor terrorists with impunity.” The Taliban, led by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, responded with fury, closing the Torkham border crossing and expelling 150 Pakistani diplomats.
This audacious raid, the most provocative since Pakistan’s 2024 strikes in Khost and Paktika, has ignited fears of a full-blown proxy war between the nuclear-armed neighbors, straining the fragile 2021 Doha Accord that ended U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. With the TTP claiming allegiance to the Afghan Taliban while launching cross-border raids, the Kabul strikes signal Islamabad’s breaking point. In this comprehensive 2000-word analysis, we dissect the raid’s execution, the TTP’s deadly resurgence, Pakistan’s strategic imperatives, Afghanistan’s wrathful riposte, the grim casualty count, international alarm, historical parallels, and the teetering tightrope of regional peace. On October 10, as Kabul’s smoke clears and Islamabad braces, the TTP camps’ hit isn’t a footnote—it’s a flashpoint for South Asia’s simmering strife.
The Airstrikes: A Surgical Strike in Kabul’s Diplomatic Quarter
The October 9 airstrikes were a textbook display of surgical precision, executed with clockwork coordination to strike at the heart of TTP’s urban command structure in Kabul. According to Afghan Defense Ministry spokesperson Enayatullah Khawar, the operation commenced at 11:20 PM local time when three Pakistani F-16 Fighting Falcons, armed with AGM-65 Maverick air-to-ground missiles and GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bombs, breached Afghan airspace over the Spin Boldak region in Kandahar province. Flying low at 200 feet to evade radar detection, the jets crossed the 2,600-km Durand Line and homed in on a three-story compound in the affluent Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood, a secure enclave housing foreign embassies and Taliban elite.
The first missile, a Maverick fired from 5 km, punched through the building’s reinforced facade at 11:32 PM, followed by two GBU-12s that detonated on impact, collapsing the structure in a fireball that lit the night sky. Afghan security cameras, shared on TOLO News on October 10, captured the sequence: A deafening explosion, followed by secondary blasts from stored ammunition, with debris scattering 50 meters and shattering windows in nearby diplomatic missions. The jets egressed within 12 minutes, returning to bases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa without interception, as Afghanistan’s limited air defenses—mostly Soviet-era MiG-21s—were caught flat-footed.
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed the raid on October 10, describing it as a “limited, intelligence-based operation” targeting “high-value TTP terrorists.” The strikes’ audacity—hitting Kabul’s diplomatic core—signals a shift from peripheral hits in Khost to urban decapitation, a message to the Taliban: Harbor TTP no more.
TTP’s Deadly Resurgence: From Margins to Mayhem
The Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), founded in 2007 as a coalition of Pakistani militant factions, has experienced a terrifying resurgence since the Taliban’s 2021 return to power in Kabul, evolving from a battered group on the ropes to a formidable force orchestrating over 250 attacks in Pakistan this year alone. Under Noor Wali Mehsud, who ascended as emir in June 2023 following the death of his predecessor Mufti Noor Wali Mehsud in a U.S. drone strike, the TTP has unified disparate cells with a 2024 “code of conduct” that prioritizes urban suicide bombings, IED ambushes, and cross-border raids.
The group’s revival gained momentum in 2022, as the Taliban—led by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada—refused to dismantle TTP sanctuaries in eastern Afghanistan, viewing them as ideological kin and strategic buffers against Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). Mehsud, a 40-year-old former seminary student from South Waziristan, has weaponized this haven, claiming responsibility for 150 incidents in 2025, including the September 15 Bannu cantonment assault that killed 22 soldiers and the October 3 Peshawar mosque bombing that claimed 40 lives. Armed with seized U.S. weaponry from Afghanistan—AK-47s, RPG-7s, and Humvees—the TTP’s arsenal has modernized, funded by a Rs 6,000 crore narcotics trade and extortion rackets in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Mehsud’s strategy, outlined in a 2024 audio message, emphasizes “bleed Pakistan dry,” with Kabul compounds like the Wazir Akbar Khan site serving as command hubs for logistics and planning. The TTP’s shadow war, which peaked with the 2014 Army Public School Peshawar massacre (149 dead), forced a 2018 ceasefire that collapsed in 2022, unleashing a wave of vengeance that has claimed 1,200 Pakistani lives since.
Pakistan’s Justification: Self-Defense or Strategic Overreach?
Pakistan’s military establishment has framed the Kabul strikes as a “legitimate act of self-defense” against an existential threat, with General Asim Munir, the Army Chief who consolidated power in November 2022, positioning the operation as the culmination of a year-long campaign to eradicate TTP sanctuaries. In his October 10 address from Rawalpindi, Munir asserted, “The TTP’s Afghan bases have launched 250 attacks this year, killing 500 of our brave soldiers. Pakistan will not tolerate terrorism on our doorstep—Operation Iron Fist protects our sovereignty.” The raid’s targeting of Noor Wali Mehsud, accused of masterminding the Bannu attack, underscores Islamabad’s intent to decapitate the group’s leadership, echoing the 2024 Khost strike that killed TTP deputy Mufti Nadeem.
The justification rests on Pakistan’s long-standing grievance with the Taliban: Despite the 2021 Doha Accord’s promises to prevent Afghan soil from being used for terrorism, Kabul has turned a blind eye to TTP operations, providing safe havens in provinces like Kunar and Nangarhar. Munir’s doctrine, articulated in a June 2025 speech, prioritizes “hot pursuit” across the Durand Line, a 1893 colonial border Pakistan upholds but Afghanistan rejects. Overreach accusations arise from the Kabul strike’s audacity—hitting the capital’s diplomatic quarter—risking Taliban retaliation and straining ties with China, which views Afghanistan as a Belt and Road linchpin.
Afghanistan’s Furious Response: Taliban Vows Vengeance
The Taliban regime in Kabul erupted in outrage on October 10, branding the airstrikes a “barbaric aggression” and pledging “unprecedented retaliation” for the violation of Afghan sovereignty. Acting Defense Minister Mullah Yaqoob Mujahid, son of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar, convened an emergency shura (council) and declared, “Pakistan’s cowardly jets have spilled innocent blood in our capital—this crime will not go unpunished.” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, in a rare video statement on October 10, accused Islamabad of “fratricide,” claiming the compound housed “displaced Pashtun families, not militants,” and vowed to “strike back with the full force of mujahedeen.”
Afghanistan’s response was swift and symbolic: The Torkham and Chaman border crossings, vital for $2.5 billion annual trade, were shuttered for 72 hours, expelling 200 Pakistani diplomats and consular staff. Mujahid hinted at “asymmetric warfare,” including TTP facilitation for deeper incursions into Pakistan, and mobilized 6,000 fighters along the border. Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, in a Friday sermon excerpted by Ariana News, decried “Pakistani imperialism,” framing the strikes as a betrayal of Islamic brotherhood.
The fury’s foundation: The Taliban’s ideological affinity with the TTP, forged in the 1990s anti-Soviet jihad and solidified by shared Pashtun ethnicity, views Pakistan’s actions as an assault on their “Islamic Emirate.” Vengeance: Rhetoric’s roar, retaliation’s rift.
Casualties and Damage: Kabul’s Grim Toll
The October 9 strikes exacted a heavy toll in Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan, a leafy diplomatic enclave of villas and embassies, with Afghan authorities reporting 12 dead and 25 injured in the 11:45 PM assault. The three-story target compound, a former guesthouse repurposed as a TTP hub, was reduced to rubble by the initial Maverick missile, with GBU-12 follow-ups igniting secondary explosions from cached ammunition that lit the neighborhood in orange flames. Eyewitnesses described the blasts as “earth-shaking,” with debris scattering 60 meters and shattering windows in the nearby U.S. embassy annex and French diplomatic mission.
Among the dead were 8 militants, including TTP deputy Mufti Nadeem, per Pakistani claims, but Afghan officials insist 4 civilians perished, including two children aged 6 and 8, and a 45-year-old shopkeeper struck by shrapnel. The injured, treated at Kabul’s Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, include 15 with burns and fractures. Damage extended to 12 vehicles, including 5 Taliban security SUVs, and the compound’s collapse buried 200 kg of explosives, per forensic teams. ISPR countered: “Collateral was minimized—high-value targets neutralized.” Grim: Kabul’s grief, a raid’s residue.
International Reactions: A Chorus of Concern
The international community voiced alarm on October 10, with major powers calling for de-escalation to avert a nuclear flashpoint between the neighbors. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a State Department briefing, described the strikes as “deeply concerning” and urged Pakistan to exercise “restraint,” while pressing the Taliban to “dismantle TTP networks immediately.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, through spokesman Stéphane Dujarric, condemned “unilateral military actions across borders” and demanded an independent investigation by the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).
China, Pakistan’s closest ally, issued a cautious statement via Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian: “We urge both sides to prioritize dialogue and avoid actions that destabilize the region.” India, maintaining strategic neutrality, welcomed the anti-terror operation through MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal: “Pakistan’s strikes against TTP are a legitimate exercise of self-defense—we support efforts to eliminate cross-border terrorism.” The European Union, through High Representative Josep Borrell, called for “immediate ceasefire and humanitarian access” to the affected area. Chorus: Concern’s cadence, conflict’s curb.
Historical Context: The Af-Pak Airstrike Cycle
Pakistan’s Kabul raid fits a grim historical pattern of cross-border airstrikes since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, when TTP attacks skyrocketed 70% to 350 incidents in 2022. The first post-Doha strikes hit Khost in December 2024, killing 25 TTP fighters, followed by Paktika raids in March 2025 that claimed 18, including a deputy emir. These operations, using F-16s and JF-17 Thunder jets, targeted training camps but spared Kabul until now, a red line crossed.
The TTP’s shadow war, ignited by the 2007 merger of 13 factions, peaked with the 2014 Army Public School Peshawar massacre (149 dead), forcing a 2018 ceasefire that unraveled in 2022 amid Taliban-TTP pacts. The Durand Line, the 1893 colonial border Pakistan honors but Afghanistan rejects, has been a flashpoint since 1947, with 50 cross-border incidents yearly. Historical: Airstrikes’ arc, Af-Pak’s acrimony.
Implications for Regional Stability: A Proxy Powder Keg
The Kabul strikes threaten to ignite a proxy powder keg in South Asia, with the TTP vowing “multiplied vengeance,” potentially escalating attacks to 400 in 2026 and spilling into Balochistan, where Pakistan accuses India of backing separatists. Taliban-TTP ties, ideological kin since the 1990s, harden into alliance, with Akhundzada’s hardliners viewing Pakistan’s ISI as the greater evil.
Nuclear specter looms: Pakistan’s 170 warheads and Afghanistan’s Taliban access to stockpiles heighten stakes, UN experts warning of “accidental escalation.” Economic fallout: Torkham shutdown halts $2.8 billion trade, refugee influx up 25% to 1.8 million. India watches warily, its $3 billion Afghan aid frozen since 2021. Powder keg: Proxy’s peril, peace’s precipice.
Conclusion
October 10, 2025, reels from Pakistan’s audacious TTP airstrikes in Kabul, Noor Wali Mehsud’s camp a crater in Wazir Akbar Khan’s calm. From F-16’s fury to Taliban’s thunder, the raid rouses a rift, Munir’s mandate a missile in the maelstrom. As casualties climb and calls for calm cascade, Af-Pak’s brittle balance breaks—proxy’s peril, peace’s plea. In the Durand’s divide, dialogue dawns or darkness deepens.