Fighting resumes between Pakistan and Afghanistan after temporary ceasefire ends, killing 2

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Renewed fighting erupted along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Wednesday after a temporary ceasefire expired, killing at least two civilians and wounding others in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan Taliban officials said.

The brief truce had been announced by the two sides ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. Ziaur Rahman Speenghar, a director at the information and culture department in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, said Pakistani forces fired dozens of artillery shells into the Narai and Sarkano districts, killing two civilians and wounding eight others after the ceasefire expired.

Afghan border forces returned fire, he said, claiming they destroyed three Pakistani military posts and killed one person. His claims could not be independently verified. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan’s military. However, a local Pakistani official in the northwest accused Afghan forces of initiating the exchange of fire in multiple areas.

The latest violence comes about a week after both sides agreed to halt hostilities following Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan at the request of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar. The pause followed Pakistani strikes that the Afghan Taliban government said hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, killing more than 400 people. That toll could not be independently confirmed.

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Pakistan has denied targeting civilians, saying it struck an ammunition depot.

Separately, the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said it had resumed attacks inside Pakistan after observing its own three-day Eid ceasefire.

The TTP, which is separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban, has stepped up attacks inside Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021. The TTP has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. Pakistan accuses Kabul of sheltering TTP leaders and thousands of members who carry out cross-border attacks.

Kabul denies the charge, but Pakistan has vowed to continue targeting TTP and its supporters inside Afghanistan until Afghanistan’s Taliban government assures that it will not allow TTP and other militants to use the Afghan soil for attacks.

Associated Press writer Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Pakistan, contributed to the story.