KANDAHAR, Afghanistan: An overnight exchange of gunfire and shelling at a major Pakistan-Afghanistan border crossing killed four civilians and one soldier, Afghan officials said Saturday (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, Hamdullah Fitrat, said in a video statement.
The local hospital at the Pakistani border town of Chaman said three people suffered minor injuries during the fighting.
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 Friday.
Pakistan said Afghan forces fired first.
“A short while ago, the Afghan Taliban regime resorted to unprovoked firing” along the border, Mosharraf Zaidi, a spokesman for Pakistan’s prime minister, said on X.
Ali Mohammed Haqmal, head of Kandahar’s information department, said that Pakistani forces attacked with “light and heavy artillery” and that mortar fire had struck civilian homes.
