Dozens of soldiers and civilians were killed in renewed border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan yesterday, according to officials from both sides of the border, as the clashes entered their second week. Violence has erupted between the two neighboring countries since the explosions that took place in Afghanistan last week, two of which occurred in Kabul. In the recent violence, the Pakistani army accused Afghanistan of attacking two border points in the southwest and northwest of the country. The army said in a statement: Unfortunately, the attack was carried out in an area that includes villages divided by the border, while disregarding the fate of civilians. He reported that the two attacks were repelled, while 20 Afghan soldiers were killed in attacks near Spin Boldak on the Afghan side of the border in the southern province of Kandahar on Wednesday morning. He pointed out that 30 others are believed to have been killed in the night confrontations along Pakistan’s northwestern border.
For its part, Afghanistan reported that 15 civilians were killed and dozens injured in the attacks that took place near Spin Boldak, and that two or three of its fighters were also killed. The spokesman for the Afghan Information Department in the Spin Boldak district, Ali Muhammad Haqmal, said that civilians were killed as a result of mortar shells. Abdul Jan Barak, an official at the Spin Boldak District Hospital, confirmed to AFP the death toll, adding that more than 80 women and children were injured.
For his part, Afghan government spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, accused Pakistani forces of carrying out new attacks using light and heavy weapons in the region. Mujahid said in a statement that 100 civilians were injured, adding that calm had returned to the region after the killing of Pakistani soldiers, the control of sites, and the seizure of weapons. But the Pakistani army described all this as blatant lies. Pakistan did not announce the death toll in the recent clashes, but it reported last week that 23 of its soldiers were killed in the first clashes.
Sadiq, a resident of Spin Boldak, reported that the battles broke out around four in the morning. He told AFP: Houses were shot at, including my relative’s house. His son and wife were killed and four of his children were injured. All shops in the area were closed, while many residents fled, according to an AFP correspondent. In Chaman, on the Pakistani side of the border, a resident described the pre-dawn confrontations as complete chaos. Raz Muhammad told AFP by phone: Our children and women felt terrified and started screaming… We had no idea what was happening.
In a separate incident, a senior security official in Peshawar, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province in northwestern Pakistan, reported that seven border guard soldiers were killed in an attack on a checkpoint. A relatively new armed group claimed responsibility for the attack. Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told parliament last Thursday that many efforts to persuade the Afghan authorities to stop supporting the Pakistani Taliban have failed.
