Dozens killed in fresh clashes along Afghanistan-Pakistan border | Afghanistan
Dozens of soldiers and civilians were killed after new clashes broke out on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and Islamabad launched retaliatory airstrikes on the Afghan capital Kabul and Kandahar province.
The two sides declared a ceasefire on Wednesday night following the latest violence following the weekend’s deadliest cross-border clashes in years.
Both countries accused each other of inciting violence. The Pakistani military said Afghan Taliban launched “unprovoked fire” on key border posts near Kurram district and the crossing point between Chaman and Spin Boldak districts on Tuesday evening. It said it retaliated with mortar fire and drone strikes, killing 20 Taliban fighters.
Pakistani security sources confirmed that the air force also attacked the headquarters of Taliban forces in Kandahar province, where crossfire reportedly started, and targets in Kabul.
Images showed that the “friendship gate” at the Chaman-Spin Boldak crossing point suffered serious damage in the attacks and the gate remained closed throughout the day. Hundreds of people fled Pakistani border villages overnight and locals reported cross-border firing, attacks and drone deployments that lasted into the evening. Residents of Kandahar province said that many people in the border areas also fled.
The Afghan Taliban claimed that Pakistan had launched attacks “once again”, killing more than a dozen civilians, and said they had killed scores of Pakistani soldiers and captured several border posts. Pakistan rejected the claim as “outrageous and blatant lies”.
The heaviest casualties on the Pakistani side were reported to be around the city of Chaman, which is just a few miles from the border and bore the brunt of heavy bombardment from the Afghan side.
Chaman resident Naqeeb Ullah, who lives just a mile from the border, said the sky was lit up with artillery fire and gunfire until the morning. “The sounds were so loud it felt like it was happening in front of our house; all our doors and windows were shaking from the impact,” he said.
Ullah said he was aware that intense fire had destroyed a local school near the border and killed many civilians. “I know that a family of 2-3 people died in the attacks and an 11-year-old child was seriously injured in the attack,” he said.
The resumption of deadly clashes and airstrikes has pushed two once-friendly neighbors closest to conflict with each other in years and sparked fears of wider regional instability.
Pakistan maintains a long-standing relationship with the Afghan Taliban, which sheltered most of the Islamist militant group’s leaders after the US invasion of Afghanistan. Pakistan was among those who supported the Taliban when it returned to power in 2021.
But ties between the two have seriously deteriorated, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of giving sanctuary to the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). TTP has been behind a growing number of deadly attacks in Pakistan in recent years. Pakistan accuses the Afghan Taliban of protecting the TTP leadership and ignoring TTP training camps in Afghanistan, as well as providing financing and weapons to the group, an allegation Kabul denies.
Last week, Pakistan was accused of carrying out two attacks on Afghan territory, including Kabul, believed to target TTP camps and leaders. Pakistan neither denied nor confirmed that it was behind the attacks.
In response, Taliban forces retaliated over the weekend by opening heavy fire on Pakistani troops stationed at border posts, prompting a harsh response from Pakistan. Dozens of people were reported dead on both sides.
Violence flared again on Tuesday night, starting in the Kurram region, where the Afghan Taliban has been accused of cross-border shelling.
Javed Ali, who lives nearby, said: “The firing and border clashes started at 8pm and continued for about 2-3 hours from both sides. We stayed in our homes as it was scary.”
Dawood Achakzai, a resident of Chaman, said that he woke up at 3 in the morning to the sounds of cannons and mortars. “Fire and shelling shook the city, people here were terrified,” he said.
He said that people living in villages close to the border were evacuated. “The villages on the Pakistani side were hit by mortars and heavy weapons. Hundreds of families left the villages. We are trying to help people evacuate and move to safer places,” he said. “We have not witnessed such heavy border clashes since the 2021 Taliban seizure of power.”
On Wednesday night, both sides agreed to a temporary 48-hour ceasefire effective from 6 p.m. In a statement made by Pakistan’s foreign ministry, it was stated that both sides would engage in dialogue to find “a positive solution to this complex but solvable problem”.
