Pakistani artillery fire killed two civilians, including a woman and a child, in south-eastern Afghanistan’s Khost province overnight, Taliban said on Monday.
Mustaghfar Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, said the shelling occurred around midnight and struck the village of Nari in Gurbaz district.
In a post on X, he said Pakistani border forces fired the artillery across the border. Pakistani authorities have not immediately commented on the claim.
The reported shelling comes as cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Taliban entered its 19th day, with clashes reported in several areas over the past 24 hours.
Earlier, Hamdullah Fitrat, Taliban deputy spokesperson, said Pakistani forces also targeted a residential house in Kamdesh district of Nuristan province in the east, killing one civilian and burning the house completely.
Fitrat added that Pakistani jets later bombed a former drug rehabilitation center on a road leading to Arghistan district in Kandahar province.
Sources in Kandahar said the Pakistani airstrikes targeted a Taliban special forces facility linked to the Taliban’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
Sources also said that the strikes hit a unit in Kandahar’s District 9 where fighters loyal to Akhundzada were being trained. The number of casualties from the attack was not immediately clear.
The United Nations has reported that 73 civilians have been killed and 193 others wounded since Feb. 26 as the fighting between Pakistani forces and Taliban has intensified.
Several countries have attempted to mediate between the two sides in recent days. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have previously hosted talks aimed at reducing tensions, though those efforts have not produced a breakthrough.
