Dozens killed in Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes, border closed

By Saeed Shah

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) -Dozens of fighters were killed in overnight border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, both sides said on Sunday, in the most serious fighting between the neighbours since the Taliban came to power in Kabul.

The Pakistan military said that 23 of its soldiers were killed in the clashes. The Taliban said nine on its side were killed.

Tensions have risen after Islamabad demanded the Taliban take action against militants who have stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operate from havens in Afghanistan. The Taliban, which came to power in 2021, denies that Pakistani militants are present on its soil.

Each side said it inflicted far higher casualties on the other side, without providing evidence. Pakistan said it had killed more than 200 Afghan Taliban and allied fighters, while Afghanistan said that it had killed 58 Pakistani soldiers.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the figures. 

PAKISTANI AIRSTRIKES TRIGGER RETALIATORY ATTACKS

On Thursday, Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Kabul and on a marketplace in eastern Afghanistan, according to Pakistani security officials and the Taliban, setting off retaliatory attacks by the Taliban. Pakistan has not officially acknowledged the airstrikes.

Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani border posts late on Saturday. Pakistan said that it had responded with gun and artillery fire. 

Both nations claimed to have destroyed border posts of the other side. Pakistani security officials shared video footage, which they said showed Afghan posts being hit.

The exchanges were mostly over on Sunday morning, Pakistani security officials said. But in Pakistan's Kurram area, intermittent gunfire continued, according to local officials and residents.

Afghanistan's ministry of defence had previously said that their operation had finished at midnight local time.

Kabul said on Sunday that it had halted attacks at the request of Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The two Arab Gulf nations had released statements of concern about the clashes. 

"There is no kind of threat in any part of Afghanistan's territory," the Taliban administration's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said Sunday. "The Islamic Emirate and the people of Afghanistan will defend their land and remain resolute and committed in this defence."

Mujahid said that fighting was ongoing in some areas. 

BORDER CROSSINGS CLOSED

Pakistani officials said on Sunday Pakistan had closed crossings along the 2,600-km (1,600-mile) border with Afghanistan, a disputed colonial-era frontier known as the Durand line drawn up by the British in 1893.

The two main border crossings with Afghanistan, at Torkham and Chaman, and at least three minor crossings, at Kharlachi, Angoor Adda and Ghulam Khan, were closed on Sunday, local officials said.

The Pakistani airstrikes coincided with a rare visit to India by a Taliban leader, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, which resulted in an announcement by India on Friday to upgrade relations. India is Pakistan's longstanding adversary, with the trip causing concern in Islamabad. 

(Reporting by Saeed Shah, Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Mushtaq Ali; additional reporting by Saud Mehsud and Saleem Ahmed; writing by Saeed Shah; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ros Russell)