Three civilians killed in Afghan-Pakistan border clash, Taliban says

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo — People on vehicles, holding Taliban flags, gather near the Friendship Gate crossing point in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border town of Chaman, Pakistan July 14, 2021. REUTERS/Abdul Khaliq Achakzai

KABUL (Reuters) - Three Afghan civilians were killed in a border clash between Pakistan and Afghanistan security forces, a spokesman for the Taliban administration in Kabul said on Tuesday.

The clashes took place late on Monday near the southwestern border crossing of Torkham after Pakistani border forces opened fire on Afghan border forces, said Mufti Abdul Mateen, the spokesman for Afghanistan's interior ministry.

The Pakistani forces targeted civilian homes, killing a woman and two children, he said.

Pakistan's military did not immediately respond to a request for a comment. Three Pakistani paramilitary troops were wounded in the fighting, said a security official who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Clashes often break out between the neighbouring security forces along the border, which was drawn up decades ago during British colonial rule and long been disputed.



(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabu; Writing by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Miral Fahmy)