Fighting between the forces of the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistan military continued on Tuesday and carried well into Wednesday, as fierce clashes broke out across several eastern Afghan provinces, including Paktika, Paktia, Khost and Nuristan, according to Taliban officials.
Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the ongoing Pakistani attacks had killed three civilians and wounded several others.
According to Fitrat, three people were killed and three more injured when a mortar shell hit a house in Patan district. He also said Pakistani forces fired mortar rounds and artillery at homes and public facilities in Shkin district, although no casualties were reported there.
Fitrat added that dozens of mortar and artillery rounds were fired in Zazi Maidan district, wounding one person and forcing many families to flee their homes. Shelling has also continued since the previous day in Kamdesh district, prompting residents to leave the area.
The remarks came after Pakistan’s Information Minister, Attaullah Tarar, said on Monday that Pakistani operations inside Afghanistan were aimed only at militant hideouts and did not target civilian areas.
The claim has been frequently refuted by the Taliban, which has long accused Islamabad of openly targeting civilian facilities such as schools, mosques, residential buildings, and market areas.
Pakistan’s claims were further contradicted by UN authorities, who earlier said that at least 56 Afghan civilians had been killed in Pakistani strikes, rebuking Islamabad’s assertion that its operations were limited solely to military targets.
