Clashes between Pakistani and Afghan forces have killed and wounded dozens in a remote border area, as hostilities deepen between the two former allies.
Both sides accused the other of triggering the deadly violence overnight Tuesday that spanned southeastern Afghanistan’s Spin Boldak district and Pakistan’s Chaman district.
In a post on X, Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid accused Pakistani forces of initiating the border fighting by firing “light and heavy weapons” at Afghanistan, killing 12 civilians and injuring more than 100.
Ali Mohammad Haqmal, a press spokesman in Spin Boldak district, put the civilian death toll at 15. The AFP news agency quoted a district hospital official as saying 80 women and children are among the wounded.
Mujahid claimed Afghani forces returned fire, killing “a large number” of Pakistani soldiers, seizing Pakistani weapons and tanks and destroying Pakistani military installations.
But Pakistani officials blamed the Afghan Taliban for first firing on a Pakistani military post near the border, causing the clashes that also wounded four of its own civilians. The Reuters news agency quoted unnamed security officials as saying six Pakistani soldiers were killed in the violence.
“Taliban forces attacked Pakistani post near Chaman (district),” Habib Ullah Bangulzai, the regional administrator in Pakistan’s Chaman district, told Reuters.
The fighting continued for about five hours in the early hours of the day, he said, claiming that Pakistani forces had “repulsed” the attack.
The conflict had subsided as of 05:30 GMT, according to Afghanistan’s Taliban.
Tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been especially fraught since Saturday, when both sides traded fire across multiple border regions, resulting in dozens of casualties on each side.
Although the clashes halted on Sunday after appeals from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, all border crossings between Pakistan and Afghanistan have remained closed.
Over the weekend, Kabul said that in retaliation for what it called repeated violations of Afghan territory and airspace, it targeted several Pakistani military posts and killed 58 Pakistani soldiers.
Pakistan’s military reported lower figures, saying it lost 23 soldiers and killed more than 200 “Taliban and affiliated terrorists” in retaliatory fire along the frontier.
Pakistan accuses Kabul of harbouring fighters with the Taliban-allied Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, which has carried out numerous deadly attacks in Pakistan.
Kabul denies the charge, saying it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.
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