Nazifa has not left her home since suspected Pakistani air strikes struck her neighborhood in Kabul, the Afghan capital.
“We’re scared to go outside,” Nazifa, who used a pseudonym for fear of retribution, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “We don’t want to be caught in another attack.”
Nazifa said the huge blasts on October 15 rattled her home in Kabul’s Taimani neighborhood, a largely residential and commercial area, and blew out the windows.
The suspected bombing raid in Kabul came as fresh fighting erupted between Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and Pakistan on October 15. Islamabad also carried out air strikes in southern Afghanistan, which was the scene of fierce ground fighting.
Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed to a 48-hour cease-fire on October 15. But the truce has done little to quell the fear gripping Kabul, a city of some 5 million people.
“No part of Afghanistan is safe -- neither on the ground nor in the air,” said another woman living in Kabul, who spoke to Radio Azadi on condition of anonymity. “The situation could worsen at any time. I haven’t been to work since yesterday because I’m scared.”
At least five people were killed and 35 wounded in the blasts in Kabul, said Italian NGO, Emergency, which runs a hospital in the city. The casualties suffered shrapnel wounds, blunt force trauma, and burns, with 10 in critical condition, the NGO said.
City workers were still clearing debris from the charred streets on October 16. Several Kabul neighborhoods were out of power, after the blasts damaged electricity cables.
“When I went out of our apartment block, I saw wounded children lying on the street,” said Hanifa, a woman who lives in the Taimani neighborhood. “I saw one boy -- he looked like he was around 8 years old. He had burns to half of his body.”
Hanifa, who also asked that RFE/RL use a pseudonym, said the blasts had “terrified” residents, forcing some of them to contemplate leaving the city.
Pakistan’s state broadcaster PTV News reported that Islamabad conducted “precision strikes” in Kabul. The target of the attack was unclear, but it came after Pakistan carried out unprecedented drone strikes in the Afghan capital on October 9 targeting members of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) extremist group.
The drone strikes triggered fierce fighting between Taliban fighters and Pakistani security forces on October 11-12, leaving dozens dead and key border crossings closed. It was the deadliest-ever fighting involving the sides.
The violence has raised fears of an all-out war between Pakistan and the Afghan Taliban, longtime allies that have fallen out.
Islamabad accuses the Afghan Taliban of sheltering the TTP, which is waging an increasingly deadly insurgency against Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban, which seized power in 2021, denies the allegation.
Taliban fighters and Pakistani soldiers have sporadically clashed along the countries’ 2,600-kilometer border since 2021. But the ferocity of the recent violence and the explosive rhetoric are seen as a major escalation.
