"Heavy weapons"

Fierce fighting between Afghanistan and Pakistan

A Pakistani security guard stands guard as Muslim worshippers gather to break their fast during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan at the Badshahi mosque in Lahore on Sunday.

(Bild: AFP)

Following a Pakistani airstrike on Afghanistan that left several dead, security forces from both countries engaged in fierce clashes. According to the Islamist Taliban, who rule Afghanistan, the fighting had already ceased on Tuesday.

According to the Afghan Ministry of Defense, Afghan border troops had fired on Pakistani military posts along the border with "heavy weapons" in retaliation for the airstrike.

"Positions reinforced"
Both sides also reported cross-border skirmishes. A senior police officer in the Pakistani border district of Kurram told the AFP news agency that Afghan security forces had attacked the area with mortar shells. Three security posts and five houses were partially damaged and nine people, including four security forces, were injured. "Today there is calm on the border and the security forces have strengthened their positions," the official added.

Pakistan carried out airstrikes
According to the Taliban, eight people were killed in Pakistani airstrikes on Monday night. Pakistani fighter jets had attacked residential houses in the provinces of Khost and Paktika near the border at around 03:00 (Sunday, 23:00 CET). All the dead were women and children. The Taliban spoke of an "attack on the sovereignty of Afghanistan".

A spokesman for the Taliban government in Afghanistan also declared the skirmishes to be over on Tuesday. "The situation is calm, the fighting has stopped," Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP. Since the return of the Islamist Taliban to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, tensions with neighboring Pakistan have increased. The government in Islamabad accuses militant groups from Afghanistan of carrying out armed attacks in Pakistan.

An Afghan security official at the Afghan-Pakistani border

(Bild: AFP)

Taliban fighters

(Bild: Associated Press)

Five dead in suicide attack on military post
A few days ago, five members of the security forces were killed in a suicide attack on a military post in north-western Pakistan. "The terrorists rammed into the post with a vehicle loaded with explosives," the Pakistani military announced on Saturday. The building had partially collapsed. Several suicide bombers then attacked. Residents of Waziristan, near the border with Afghanistan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told Reuters that an explosion shook doors and shattered windows when the attack began.

Pakistan: Suicide attack on military base

(Bild: Associated Press)

Many of the attacks in Pakistan are attributed to the Pakistani Taliban (TTP). The government in Islamabad accuses Afghanistan of using the neighboring country as a base for the attacks. The Taliban, who rule Afghanistan, deny this. "Pakistan should not blame Afghanistan for the loss of control, incompetence and problems on its own territory," said a Taliban spokesman on Monday.

The TTP are seeking to overthrow the government and want to lead Pakistan according to a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam. The Islamists have killed thousands of soldiers, police and civilians in bomb attacks and suicide bombings in recent years.