News - Middle East: Fierce overnight clashes have reportedly erupted along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, as the former accuses Kabul of allowing the Afghan territory to be used for attacks on Pakistani soil and Taliban officials blaming Islamabad for recent airstrikes.

On Saturday, Pakistani officials pointed to “heavy exchanges” at multiple border points.

“Tonight, Taliban forces began firing at several border locations. We retaliated with artillery at four points along the frontier,” a Pakistani government source told The Guardian, warning that “no aggression from the Afghan Taliban will be tolerated.”

Taliban officials also said their forces had launched retaliatory attacks after Islamabad allegedly bombed Afghan territory. They claimed having captured two Pakistani border posts in the Helmand Province.

The reported violence came after several explosions were reported in Kabul and southeastern Afghanistan on Thursday.

The Taliban-run defense ministry accused Pakistan of “violating Afghan sovereignty” through cross-border strikes.

Islamabad has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in such airstrikes.

It has also said the Taliban had to “stop sheltering” the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Pakistani military spokesman Lt. Gen. Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said the army would “do whatever is necessary,” saying Afghanistan had to prevent, what he called, the use of its territory for attacks against Pakistan.

Relations between the two sides have sharply deteriorated in recent months over Pakistan’s accusations that Afghanistan is harboring TTP.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Afghanistan condemned the reported Pakistani strikes as a “big mistake” on Friday.

Muttaqi, speaking during a visit to New Delhi, vowed that “Afghanistan will not allow military interventions or foreign military presence of any kind.”
Source: Press TV