At least four Afghan civilians, including three children, were killed in overnight Pakistani shelling, bringing the civilian death toll to 18 in a week.
host: Four Afghan civilians, including three children and a woman, were killed in overnight Pakistani shelling in eastern Afghanistan.
Mustaghfir Gurbuz, a spokesman for the governor in Khost province, told AFP that Pakistani forces fired mortar shells on the village of Nari in Gurbuz district just after midnight, killing a woman and a child.
The shelling also targeted a market, a health clinic and another village, injuring four people, two of them seriously.
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.
An additional civilian was killed when shelling hit a house in eastern Nuristan province, according to deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat.
Afghan officials say 18 civilians have 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 say they do not target civilians, although independent verification of casualties in remote border areas is difficult.
Relations between the neighbors have been tense for months, with Islamabad accusing Afghan Taliban officials of harboring Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State militants from Khorasan province.
Clashes subsided after mediation last October but flared up again on February 26 when Afghanistan launched an offensive along the border in response to earlier Pakistani air strikes.
Pakistan then declared “open war” against Taliban officials by bombing the capital Kabul on 27 February.
Recent border clashes have disrupted trade and forced about 115,000 people from their homes, according to the UN refugee agency.
The World Food Program said on Sunday it had begun delivering food to more than 20,000 displaced Afghan families, warning that further instability would push millions more toward hunger.
