Pakistan-Afghanistan border fighting has escalated, with Pakistani security sources saying several Afghan Taliban fighters were killed in an exchange of fire in the Gulistan area on Friday.
The sources said Pakistani forces had foiled an “attempted Afghan aggression” and that intermittent cross-border fire was continuing.
There was no official confirmation from either Pakistan or Afghanistan of the reported casualties or the ongoing clashes.
Pakistan-Afghanistan border fighting follows air strikes
The latest confrontation follows Pakistani air attacks on 10 locations in Afghanistan on Thursday. Afghanistan’s government said it would deliver an “appropriate response” to the strikes.
Pakistan’s Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, said the raids came after what he described as a “deliberate and unlawful incursion into Pakistan by drones” on Wednesday.
Mr Tarar said the strikes had hit “terrorist hideouts and support infrastructure including drone launching and storage sites”. He also posted a video which he said showed the military attacks on sites in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s government spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said the air strikes had targeted Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces. Taliban officials denied that their government had launched drones against Pakistan.
The two neighbours have been locked in growing tensions over attacks by armed groups in Pakistan, prompting their worst fighting in years in February.
Islamabad accuses Kabul of sheltering fighters responsible for cross-border attacks, while Afghanistan denies harbouring anti-Pakistani armed groups and says the violence is an internal Pakistani problem.
The latest escalation threatens mediation efforts by China, Turkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to secure a lasting peace between the two countries.
