Heavy fighting erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border overnight after both sides forces exchanged artillery fire, mortars and heavy weapons across multiple frontier areas, local residents and security sources said, marking another major escalation in the rapidly worsening standoff between the two neighbors.
The clashes began late Saturday along the disputed border in Afghanistan’s eastern provinces of Paktia and Nangarhar and Pakistan’s Kurram district, with both sides accusing each other of initiating the fighting. Residents said exchanges of heavy gunfire and mortar fire continued until early Sunday morning before subsiding several hours later.
Witnesses in Pakistan’s Kurram district told local media that artillery shells landed near the Kharlachi and Burki border areas, where Pakistani military positions and nearby civilian locations came under fire. Residents described hours of explosions and heavy weapon fire that forced families to remain indoors as fighting spread across several sections of the frontier.
Pakistani security sources claimed Taliban fighters fired heavy weapons, mortars and artillery toward Pakistani military posts and civilian areas across the border. Islamabad said its forces responded by targeting multiple border posts, mortar positions and defensive bunkers with artillery fire.
The Taliban government has not issued an official statement on the latest border clashes, although its spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid previously condemned Pakistan’s recent airstrikes as a violation of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and warned that they would deliver an “appropriate response.”
Escalation follows Pakistani airstrikes inside Afghanistan
The latest exchange of fire comes days after Pakistan acknowledged carrying out airstrikes on multiple targets inside Afghanistan, saying the operations targeted militants responsible for cross-border attacks and drone launches against Pakistan.
Pakistan said it struck 10 locations in the Afghanistan provinces of Kandahar, Paktia and Khost, claiming they were used to launch and store drones targeting Pakistani territory. Taliban authorities rejected the allegations and said Pakistani strikes killed four civilians in the latest attacks.
Earlier this week, Pakistan also carried out airstrikes in Kunar and Paktika provinces, saying they targeted militant hideouts. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed that at least three civilians, a man, a woman and a girl were killed in one of those strikes and called for adherence to international humanitarian law.
The latest artillery exchanges underline the growing risk that localized border violence could evolve into a broader military confrontation between Islamabad and Kabul, threatening security and trade along the nearly 2,600-kilometer frontier.
