4 civilians and one soldier killed in Afghan-Pakistan border clash

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – An overnight exchange of fire at one of the main Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossings killed four civilians and one soldier, an Afghan official said on Dec 6, the latest flare-up of fighting between the two countries despite a ceasefire since

deadly clashes in October

.

Five other civilians were wounded, an Afghan government spokesman, Mr Hamdullah Fitrat, said in a video statement.

The local hospital at the Pakistani border town of Chaman said three people had suffered minor injuries during the clash.

Each side accused the other of launching “unprovoked” attacks at the crossing between Chaman and Spin Boldak in southern Afghanistan.

“Unfortunately, tonight, the Pakistani side started attacking Afghanistan in Kandahar, Spin Boldak district, and the forces of the Islamic Emirate were forced to respond,” Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted on social media platform X late on Dec 5.

Pakistan said Afghan forces fired first. “A short while ago, the Afghan Taliban regime resorted to unprovoked firing” along the border, Mr Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, said on X.

Mr Ali Mohammed Haqmal, the head of Kandahar’s information department, said that Pakistani forces attacked with “light and heavy artillery” and that mortar fire had struck civilian homes.

Houses hit

Residents on the Afghan side of the border told AFP the exchange of fire broke out around 10.30pm and lasted about two hours.

“Light and weak firing started, then the tanks started firing and the mortars hit our houses,” said Mr Mahmood Khan, adding that a niece and two cousins were wounded.

Another resident, Mr Shamsullah, who declined to give his last name, said his brother was killed by a mortar when trying to reach another room of their home.

“We couldn’t pick him up because more mortars were coming,” he said, adding that he was later taken for treatment in Kandahar but died soon after he arrived.

On the Pakistan side, Mr Muhammad Naeem, a labourer at the border, said that as the fighting intensified, “mortar shells began landing on houses and in the surrounding areas”.

“Many people fled their homes, but because the gunfire was so heavy, we had no choice but to stay inside.”

UN aid deliveries?

Afghanistan and Pakistan have been locked in an increasingly bitter dispute since the Taliban authorities retook control in Kabul in 2021.

Security issues are at the heart of the controversy, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of harbouring militant groups, particularly the Pakistani Taliban, that launch attacks on its soil. The Taliban government in Kabul denies the allegations.

More than 70 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the October clashes, which ended with a ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey. But several subsequent rounds of talks in Doha and Istanbul have failed to produce a lasting deal, and the border between the two South Asian neighbours remains closed.

Kabul accused Islamabad in November of air strikes in a border area that killed 10 people, nine of them children. Pakistan denied the claim.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry warned on Nov 28 that, in the light of “major” attacks on its soil, “the ceasefire is not holding”.

Pakistan said earlier this week it would partially reopen the frontier for aid deliveries, with the crossing at Chaman expected to be used by United Nations agencies.

It was not clear when the deliveries will begin, but Mr Zaidi, the Pakistan Prime Minister’s spokesman, told AFP that “aid deliveries are separate” and the latest clash would have “no impact on that decision”. AFP