Pakistani Shelling in Afghanistan's Khost Province Causes Civilian Casualties, Taliban Officials Say

Pakistani artillery and mortar shells struck civilian areas in Afghanistan's Khost province overnight on March 15-16, causing casualties including women and children, according to Taliban officials.

The press office of the Khost provincial administration told Bakhtar News that around 9 p.m., shells targeted the market, central clinic and villages including Atakhil in Zhaji Maidān district, wounding four people including a woman, two of them critically. Sources cited by Bakhtar News added that midnight mortar fire hit Nari village in Garbaz district, killing one woman and wounding a child and another woman, for a total of seven casualties.

Mastaghfar Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, told Khaama Press that Pakistani artillery hit residential areas in the Afghan-Dubai area of Spera district, killing two children and wounding two others. Several homes were damaged or destroyed, local sources said.

Reports differed on the locations within Khost, with Bakhtar News citing Zhaji Maidān and Garbaz districts while Khaama Press specified Spera, and on casualty figures, with Bakhtar News reporting one killed and six wounded versus Khaama Press reporting two killed and two wounded.

Khaama Press also reported, citing Taliban deputy spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat, that artillery fire killed a civilian in Kamdesh district of Nuristan province, where a house was completely burned. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan recently reported around 75 civilians killed in clashes between Pakistani forces and Taliban fighters along the border.

Cross-border tensions have escalated recently amid artillery exchanges, airstrikes and clashes, coinciding with Pakistan's deportation of Afghan refugees.