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Pakistan Destroys Afghan Taliban Military Compound in Kandahar, Satellite Imagery Confirms

Pakistan Destroys Afghan Taliban Military Compound in Kandahar, Satellite Imagery Confirms
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has completely destroyed an Afghan Taliban military compound in Kandahar, with satellite imagery confirming the facility was reduced to ashes in precision airstrikes conducted under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq.

Target: Sarai Mullah Omar Facility

According to BBC Afghan fact-check analysis of satellite imagery, the targeted facility was Sarai Mullah Omar in Kandahar - the former residence of Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar, which was used as a CIA base during the Afghan Republic era.

Satellite imagery shows multiple hangars were completely destroyed, with visible flames and smoke rising from the area after the strikes. According to geolocation data released by STRATCOM Bureau, UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter hangars at the former CIA Camp Gecko - now the Afghan Taliban's Kandahar headquarters and governor's residence - were also targeted.

Pakistan Confirms 10 Locations Targeted

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar confirmed that Pakistan Air Force and drone strikes hit 10 locations inside Afghanistan under Operation Ghazab lil-Haq, describing them as "precise, calibrated and proportionate." The targets were drone launch and storage infrastructure linked to cross-border attacks on Pakistan.

Tarar stated the strikes were a direct response to eight drones launched from Afghan territory into Pakistani airspace on September 23. Pakistan's air defences detected, tracked, and neutralised all eight - four near the Torkham border and four in the hills near Kohat.

Taliban Response

Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed strikes on Kandahar, Paktia, and Khost provinces, condemning them as "brutal aggression by the Pakistani military regime" and claiming four civilians were killed. The BBC reported that all four deaths occurred in Kandahar.

Taliban spokesman for Khost province, Mustainfir Gulbaz, said targets included Gulan Camp in Gurbaz district, Ismail Khel, and parts of Mandozai, but claimed no casualties occurred, stating the targets were mostly empty houses.

Second Strike in Four Days

This marks Pakistan's second cross-border strike inside Afghanistan in four days. On September 21, Pakistan targeted what it described as militant camps in Kunar and Paktika provinces. Pakistan claimed 28 militants were killed, while UNAMA confirmed at least three civilians - a man, a woman, and a girl - died in Kunar.

Tom Cooper is a Vienna-based independent military analyst, historian, and author specializing in post-Cold War air warfare, Middle Eastern conflicts, and the armed forces of Central and Eastern Europe. With over 25 years of field research and analysis, he is a frequent contributor to specialized publications like Jane's Intelligence Review, Combat Aircraft Magazine, and the Central European Journal of Strategic Studies. A former Austrian Army reservist (military intelligence), Cooper combines boots-on-the-ground technical intelligence (TECHINT) collection—photographing and analyzing equipment—with open-source intelligence (OSINT) and deep archival research. He is renowned for his meticulous "order of battle" analyses, tracking the deployment and attrition of military units in conflicts from the Balkans to Syria and Ukraine.


Vienna, Austria

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