Afghanistan says more than a dozen civilians killed in renewed border fighting with Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (AP) — More than a dozen Afghan civilians were killed and over 100 others were wounded as renewed fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan broke out along their shared border early Wednesday, officials said.

The countries have traded fire along the border since Saturday, when dozens were killed across multiple border regions. Afghanistan claimed to have killed 58 Pakistani soldiers in overnight operations in retaliation for what it called repeated violations of Afghan territory and airspace. Pakistan’s army said 23 troops were killed.

The fighting on Wednesday erupted before dawn, according to officials on both sides. Pakistan TV, the main state-owned television station, reported later in the day that Afghanistan was seeking a ceasefire on the border near the village of Chaman where the fighting was concentrated.

Pakistani security officials and state-run media accused Afghan troops of “unprovoked fire” that was repulsed in Kurram, a district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Security officials and television reports said Pakistan’s military overnight killed 30 Afghan Taliban fighters near Kurram in Afghanistan’s Khost province, destroyed a large training facility in Afghanistan used by the Pakistani Taliban.

Zabihullah Mujahid, chief spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, said Pakistan used light and heavy weapons in assaults on the Spin Boldak district in Afghanistan’s southern Kandahar province, which lies opposite Pakistan’s southwestern border town of Chaman.

Afghan forces returned fire and killed several Pakistani soldiers, seized military posts and captured weapons including tanks, Mujahid said.

Pakistan’s military rejected the Afghan claim Wednesday, saying in a statement that the fighting along the Chaman border was orchestrated by the Taliban in Afghanistan “through divided villages in the area, with no regard for the civilian population.”

The attack was repulsed by Pakistani forces, which killed between 15 and 20 Afghan Taliban and wounded many others in Spin Boldak, a border city in Afghanistan’s Kandahar province, the military said.

On Tuesday, Pakistan’s military said the Afghan Taliban worked with the Pakistani Taliban in an attempted assault on Pakistani border posts in the Kurram district but the attacks were repulsed, causing “heavy losses” to Afghan positions.

Awais Ahmad, a doctor at Chaman hospital, said several people wounded in the attack were brought to the hospital.

Witnesses in Chaman said they saw mortars falling near Pakistani villages and some families were seen evacuating.

“This fighting has been going on since early morning, and the people who live close to border area leaving the area,” said Chaman resident Najibullah Khan, who urged the countries to end the fighting to prevent further shelling of villages.

The clashes on the long and porous border stopped temporarily Sunday following appeals from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, but border crossings remain closed.

The renewed fighting underscores the simmering tension between the neighbors. The Taliban government on Friday accused Pakistan of carrying out airstrikes in Kabul and in an eastern Afghanistan market.

Pakistani state media said Tuesday night that the military targeted hideouts of the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, which is a separate but allied group of the Afghan Taliban.

The latest attacks in Kurram were carried out jointly by Afghan forces and TTP fighters and Pakistan destroyed several Afghan posts and inflicted heavy losses in response, state media said.

Pakistan accuses the Taliban government of harboring the TTP, which has carried out numerous deadly attacks inside Pakistan. Kabul denies the allegation, saying it does not allow its territory to be used for operations against other countries.

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Abdul Qahar Afghan in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, and Abdul Sattar in Quetta, Pakistan, contributed to this report.