Pakistani and Afghan forces exchanged fire at several locations along their lengthy border on Tuesday, as the United Nations mission in Afghanistan said at least 42 civilians have been killed during six days of escalating conflict.
Tensions surged after Pakistan launched air strikes last week on major Afghan cities, raising fears the fighting could develop into a prolonged conflict in a region already unsettled by U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that Pakistani forces had successfully struck Bagram air base north of Kabul, which served as a major U.S. command centre during the two-decade war in Afghanistan.
«We had intelligence that there was ammunition and critical equipment being used by terrorists to fight the Pakistan army along the border as well as by Afghan Taliban troops,» Tarar told Reuters.
Afghan police said earlier that anti-aircraft systems repelled the attack.
A senior Pakistani security official said the air campaign would continue until Afghanistan took concrete steps to prevent militants from operating from its territory. If such measures were not taken, Pakistan could expand strikes to include senior Taliban leadership, the source said.
Clashes at Multiple Border Points
Fighting has flared intermittently along the roughly 2,600-kilometre border throughout the six-day confrontation.
Afghanistan’s defence ministry said Taliban fighters had seized a Pakistani military post in the Kandahar region on Tuesday. Meanwhile Pakistan’s information ministry reported clashes at more than two dozen locations along the frontier.
Pakistani security officials also said their forces destroyed a weapons depot in Jalalabad and a military facility in Nangarhar province. Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy losses on the other, though neither has provided evidence.
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said preliminary figures indicate that 42 civilians were killed and 104 wounded by indirect fire during cross-border fighting between February 26 and March 2.
Tarar rejected the UN estimate, arguing that militants often wear civilian clothing and accusing the Kabul-based mission of relying on Taliban authorities for information.
«Pakistan has been precise in targeting terrorists and their supporters, including Afghan Taliban military installations that support terrorists,» he said.
UN Urges Halt to Fighting
Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari told a joint session of parliament on Monday that Islamabad would not permit «any entity — domestic or foreign — to use neighbouring territory to destabilise our peace».
UNAMA urged both sides to end the fighting, warning that the violence has displaced around 16,400 households and worsened conditions for Afghanistan’s population.
The agency said the conflict has also disrupted humanitarian operations in areas already struggling to recover from earthquakes in August and September that killed more than 1,400 people.
«Restrictions on movements in the border area due to the active conflict have reduced the capacity of humanitarian agencies and partners to deliver life-saving and other assistance in the most-affected areas,» the mission said.
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