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Afghan govt accuses Pakistan after new strikes on Kabul / Photo: © AFP
Afghan govt accuses Pakistan after new strikes on Kabul
Afghan authorities on Monday accused neighbouring Pakistan of attacking Kabul, as AFP journalists heard loud explosions overhead and anti-aircraft defences swung into action.
Several blasts were heard between 9:00 pm and 9:15 pm (1630 to 1645 GMT) and plumes of smoke were visible from the Shahr-e-Naw and Wazir Akbar Khan areas in the centre of the Afghan capital.
In one building, a panicked mother ran outside, calling for her son to come back in as the explosion rocked the neighbourhood.
The explosions -- just days before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan -- caused panic and forced families out and about after breaking their fast to run for shelter, an AFP photographer said.
Other local residents scurried to take cover in basements.
Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on X that the Pakistani military had "once again violated Afghan territory", calling the strikes "a crime" and an "act of inhumanity".
The Pakistani military has struck Kabul several times in recent weeks, as part of a conflict sparked by claims that the Taliban government has harboured extremists who have carried out attacks across the border.
But Mujahid said the latest strikes hit a drug treatment centre, killing a number of civilians.
There was no immediate independent verification of his claim. There was no comment either from the Pakistani military when contacted by AFP.
The sound of anti-aircraft guns stopped at about 10:00 pm and ambulance sirens could be heard.
- Food distribution -
Clashes between the two sides escalated in October last year, leaving dozens dead, but after subsiding they resumed last month, with Pakistan describing the conflict as "open war".
On Friday, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan confirmed the deaths of at least 75 civilians in the country since clashes with Pakistan intensified on February 26.
Both sides maintain they do not target civilians.
Airstrikes and bombardments are regularly reported in border regions of eastern and southern Afghanistan.
Three children and a woman were killed by Pakistani shelling in eastern Afghanistan overnight between Sunday and Monday, Afghan officials said.
Pakistani mortar shelling killed two children on Sunday night in the Afghan Dubai area of Khost, the governor's office said in a statement.
One person was also killed in eastern Nuristan province when shelling hit a "civilian home" on Sunday, the government's deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said on X.
In total, 18 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan in the past week as a result of cross-border clashes between the two sides, according to the Afghan authorities.
Repeated border clashes in recent weeks have hit trade and about 115,000 people have been forced to leave their homes, according to the UN refugee agency.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said on Sunday that it has started delivering "life-saving food" to over 20,000 displaced Afghan families and warned that "further instability will push millions into hunger".
Just over 100 people forced to leave their homes gathered from dawn on Monday at a WFP distribution site in Paktia province, on Afghanistan's eastern border, to receive fortified biscuits, an AFP photographer said.
B.Johnson--SFF
