At least four Afghan civilians, including three children, were killed in overnight Pakistani shelling, bringing the civilian death toll to 18 in a week.
KHOST: Four Afghan civilians, including three children and a woman, were killed by Pakistani shelling overnight in eastern Afghanistan.
The governor’s spokesman in Khost province, Mustaghfir Gurbuz, told AFP that Pakistani forces fired mortar shells on Nari village in Gurbuz district just after midnight, killing a woman and a child.
Shelling also struck a market, a health clinic and another village, wounding four people, two of whom were in critical condition.
A separate statement from the Khost governor’s office confirmed that two more children were killed by mortar fire in the Afghan Dubai area on Sunday night.
One additional civilian was killed in eastern Nuristan province when shelling hit a home, according to government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat.
The Afghan authorities state that 18 civilians have now been killed in the country in the past week due to cross-border clashes.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan confirmed on Friday that at least 75 civilians have been killed since clashes with Pakistan intensified on February 26.
Both sides maintain they do not target civilians, though independent verification of casualties is difficult in the remote border regions.
The neighbours have had strained relations for months, with Islamabad accusing the Afghan Taliban authorities of harbouring militants from the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State Khorasan Province.
Clashes decreased after mediation last October but flared again on February 26 when Afghanistan launched a border offensive in retaliation for earlier Pakistani air strikes.
Pakistan then declared “open war” against the Taliban authorities, bombing the capital Kabul on February 27.
Recent border clashes have disrupted trade and forced about 115,000 people from their homes, according to the UN refugee agency.
The World Food Programme said on Sunday it has started delivering food to over 20,000 displaced Afghan families, warning that further instability will push millions into hunger.
The Sun Malaysia
