Overnight exchange of fire along the Afghan-Pakistan border kills 5 and wounds 8, officials say

JALALABAD Afghanistan AP An overnight exchange of fire between Afghan forces and Pakistani troops along the two countries tense edge killed five Afghan civilians and wounded five others while three civilians were also wounded on the Pakistani side authorities from the two countries revealed Saturday Each side has blamed the other for triggering the clash in violation of a tenuous two-month ceasefire Those killed in the boundary area near the Afghan city of Spin Boldak in southern Afghanistan s Kandahar province included three children and one woman commented Ali Mohammad Haqmal the head of information of Spin Boldak District Pakistani police and a hospital official in the Pakistani city of Chaman Mohammad Awais stated three people including a woman were wounded in the shooting and shelling that came from the Afghan side The clashes lasted until dawn Saturday police explained Tension between the two countries has been high since October when deadly margin clashes killed dozens of soldiers civilians and suspected militants and wounded hundreds on both sides The violence erupted after explosions in Kabul the Afghan capital on Oct that the Taliban regime blamed on Pakistan and vowed to avenge The fighting has been the worst between the neighbors in latest years A Qatar-mediated ceasefire began in October and has largely held but peace talks have so far failed to produce an agreement Pakistan has suffered several militant attacks inside its country and has blamed largest part of them on the Pakistani Taliban known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP Though separate from the Afghan Taliban the TTP is closely allied with it and various of its fighters are presumed to have taken refuge in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power there in further straining relations Pakistan and Afghanistan have both blamed each other for the cross-border exchange of fire that broke out Friday night Haqmal reported the Afghan side didn t respond for - minutes after Pakistani forces began shooting and that once the Afghan side responded it stopped firing within an hour The shooting by the Pakistani side continued until Saturday morning he explained However Mohammad Sadiq a local Pakistani police official claimed the shooting started from the Afghan side and that Pakistani troops returned fire near the Chaman limit bridging a key transit path The exchange came a day after Pakistan noted it would allow the United Nations to send relief supplies into Afghanistan through the Chaman and Torkham boundary crossings which have been mostly closed for nearly two months amid escalating tensions Abidullah Farooqi a spokesman for the Afghan confines police commented Friday night that Pakistani forces first threw a hand grenade into the Spin Boldak perimeter area on the Afghan side prompting a response He announced Afghanistan remains committed to the ceasefire Mosharraf Zaidi a spokesman for Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif disclosed on X that earlier in the evening the Afghan Taliban regime resorted to unprovoked firing along the Chaman demarcation He added that Pakistani forces remain fully alert and committed to ensuring the country s territorial integrity and the safety of its citizens Separately Pakistan s military revealed Saturday that its protection forces had killed nine Pakistani Taliban militants during two intelligence-based operations Friday in Pakistan s northwestern districts of Tank and Lakki Marwat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which borders Afghanistan Ahmed revealed from Islamabad Pakistan Elena Becatoros in Athens Greece contributed to this document Source