02/03/2026

MONDAY | MAR 2, 2026

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Blasts, gunfire rattle Kabul o Afghanistan fires at Pakistani jets

security challenges are an internal matter. Pakistani security sources have said operation Ghazab Lil Haq, meaning “Wrath for the Truth”, was ongoing and that Pakistani forces had destroyed Afghan posts and camps. Both sides have reported heavy losses, issuing differing casualty figures for each other. Reuters could not independently verify the claims. Diplomatic efforts have intensified, with Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, the European Union and United Nations urging restraint and calling for talks. – Reuters

announced retaliatory operations along their shared border. Iran, which shares borders with both Afghanistan and Pakistan, had offered to help facilitate dialogue before itself coming under attack on Saturday from Israel and the US bent on diminishing Iran’s military capability. Pakistan has said Afghanistan harbours Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants, which it said are waging an insurgency inside Pakistan. Afghanistan has denied the accusation, saying it does not allow Afghan territory to be used against other countries and that Pakistan’s

Afghan forces targeting Pakistani aircraft over the capital. “Air defence attacks were carried out in Kabul against Pakistani aircraft. “Kabul residents should not be concerned,” Zabihullah said. The Pakistan prime minister’s office, Information Ministry and military did not respond to requests for comment. The violence follows airstrikes inside Afghanistan last week that Pakistan said targeted militant infrastructure. Afghanistan described the strikes as a violation of sovereignty and

denies, that it harbours militants. The heaviest fighting in years between the neighbours has raised fears of a protracted conflict along their 2,600km border, with several countries that include Qatar and Saudi Arabia calling for restraint and offering to help mediate a ceasefire. Explosions echoed across parts of Kabul before sunrise, followed by bursts of gunfire, a witness said. It was not clear what had been targeted or whether there were casualties. Afghan administration spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the sounds were the result of

KABUL: Afghanistan said it was firing at Pakistani jets in Kabul after blasts and gunfire rocked the capital yesterday, compounding instability in a region rattled by US-Israeli strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks on US targets in Gulf states. Afghanistan has suffered Pakistani strikes on government installations over the past week following accusations, which it

Airspace closed, flights cancelled PARIS: Thousands of flights have been delayed or cancelled in the biggest disruption to air transport as airlines suspend services to the Middle East. were cancelled, Cirium said. Flight tracking website FlightAware said more than 19,000 flights had been delayed globally and more than 2,600 were cancelled.

Iran, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates all announced at least partial closures of their skies after Saturday’s strikes and Iran launching missiles at capital cities around the Gulf region. Major carriers from the Middle East, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the United States announced cancellations, leaving thousands of passengers stranded. Notable airlines that cancelled services included Emirates, Etihad, Air France, British Airways, Air India, Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa. According to aviation analytics company Cirium, of about 4,200 flights scheduled to land in Middle Eastern countries on Saturday, 966 were cancelled, with the figure rising above 1,800 if also including outbound flights. Yesterday, 716 flights out of 4,329 scheduled to the Middle East China strongly condemns Khamenei killing BEIJING: China said yesterday it “strongly condemns” the killing of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei by the United States and Israel, calling again for a halt to military actions. The killing was “a serious violation of Iran’s sovereignty and security, a trampling on the aims and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international relations”, Beijing’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this,” it said, calling for “immediate halting of military operations”. The ministry said Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected. China’s embassy in Israel issued a notice advising Chinese citizens in Israel to evacuate to safer areas within the country as soon as possible or to leave for Egypt via the Taba border crossing. The ministry also urged Chinese citizens in Iran to leave “as soon as

Iran swiftly closed its airspace as the strikes began “until further notice”, said the spokesman of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organisation, quoted by the Tasnim news agency. Israel also closed its airspace to civilian flights, Transport Minister Miri Regev announced. Qatar’s civil aviation authority said it had temporarily closed the Gulf state’s airspace. Iraq and Kuwait also shut down their respective airspace, while the United Arab Emirates said it was closing its skies “partially and temporarily”. Syria closed part of its airspace in the south along the border with Israel for 12 hours, the Civil Aviation Authority said. Jordan’s air force was conducting drills to “defend the kingdom’s skies”, its military said. – AFP

A Tel Aviv cleaning crew at the site of a building damaged in an Iranian strike yesterday. – AFPPIC

Thailand to evacuate citizens BANGKOK: Thailand is preparing to evacuate its citizens from the Middle East by military or charter flights, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said yesterday. The government has “coordinated with the Royal Thai Air Force to prepare aircraft to evacuate Thai citizens, prioritising those in Iran”, Anutin said, adding that charter flights were also under consideration. “We have to check the closure of airspace, whether we need to evacuate them to a third country first,” he said. Anutin said there were tens of thousands of Thai workers in the region, citing the Labour Ministry. Nearly 59,000 Thais were registered with Thailand’s labour office in Israel, and more than 11,000 were registered with Thailand’s labour office in Abu Dhabi, which covers the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Iran, according to the ministry. “The Thai government will do everything to bring Thai citizens back safely. If they want to return, we will bring them back,” Anutin said. – AFP

South Korean protesters making their stand in front of the US embassy in Seoul yesterday. – AFPPIC

Iran by the two states “constitute a thoroughly illegal act of aggression and the most vile form of violation of sovereignty in their nature”, a spokesperson for the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. – AFP/Reuters

military coercion was a “flagrant violation” of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and a departure from “fundamental norms of international relations”. North Korea also condemned the attack as an “illegal act of aggression”. The military campaigns against

possible”, listing four land routes to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkiye and Iraq. In a commentary yesterday, Xinhua news agency criticised the attack, calling it “brazen aggression against a sovereign nation” and “power politics and hegemony”. Xinhua said Washington’s use of