Pakistan has reportedly foiled an "attempted Afghan aggression" on the Pakistan-Afghan border. Pakistani security sources claim that several Afghan members of the Taliban were killed in an intermittent exchange of fire in the Gulistan area on Friday, and that fighting is still ongoing. There has been no official confirmation from either country involved.

The Afghan government said on Thursday that it would deliver an "appropriate response" to Pakistani air attacks on 10 locations in Afghanistan earlier that day. The strikes were allegedly in response to a "deliberate and unlawful incursion into Pakistan by drones" on Wednesday, according to Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar. Tarar claimed in a post on his X account that Pakistan's aerial and drone attacks hit "terrorist hideouts and support infrastructure including drone launching and storage sites." He also posted a video purportedly showing the military strikes on the Afghan sites.

Afghanistan's government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the air strikes targeted Kandahar, Paktia and Khost provinces. Taliban officials denied that their government launched drones against Pakistan on Wednesday. The air raids on Thursday were carried out amid growing tensions between the former allies over attacks by armed groups in Pakistan, which triggered their worst fighting in years in February.

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harbouring fighters who stage cross-border attacks, but Afghanistan's government denies harbouring anti-Pakistani armed groups and says the attacks are Pakistan's internal problem. The escalation threatens mediation efforts by China, Turkiye, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to broker a lasting peace between the two neighbours.

Source: www.aljazeera.com