Pakistani and Afghan troops continue clashes; 42 Afghan civilians killed in 6 days

Pakistani and Afghan troops clashed at multiple points along their expansive border on Tuesday as the United Nations mission for Afghanistan warned that 42 civilians in the country had been killed so far in the six-day conflict.

The South Asian allies-turned-foeshave engaged in their worst fighting in years following Pakistani air strikes on major Afghan cities last week, raising fears of another protracted conflict in a region also contending with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

Islamabad has launched air-to-ground missiles at Taliban military sites over the last week, and even directly targeted the Taliban government in unprecedented, sustained strikes over allegations it harbours militants executing attacks on Pakistan from its soil. The Taliban has denied aiding militant groups.

Pakistan's Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said on Tuesday that successful air strikes were conducted on the Bagram air base north of Kabul, which served as a key American command centre through the 20-year Afghan war.

"We had intelligence that there was ammunition and critical equipment being used by terrorists to fight the Pakistan army along the border as well as by Afghan Taliban troops," Tarar told Reuters in the first official Pakistani acknowledgement of the strikes.

Afghan police had said on Sunday that the attack on Bagram was repelled by anti-aircraft guns.

A senior Pakistani security source said the air strikes would continue until Afghanistan took concrete steps to deal with militants using its territory.

If such steps were not taken, Pakistan could target the Taliban's top leadership, the source said.

Clashes at dozens of border posts

Reports of fighting along the 2,600-km (1,615-mile) border have ebbed and flowed over the six-day conflict.

On Tuesday, Afghanistan's defence ministry said Taliban forces had captured a Pakistani military post in the Kandahar region while Pakistan's information ministry reported fighting at more than two dozen locations.

Pakistani security sources said they had destroyed a weapons storage facility in Jalalabad and a military base in Nangarhar province. Both countries said they have inflicted heavy losses on the other side without providing evidence.

Reuters has not been able to verify the accounts.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said that 42 civilians have been killed and 104 wounded in "indirect fire in cross-border clashes" between February 26 and March 2, based on "preliminary" figures.

Tarar refuted the figure, saying militants wear "civilian attire" and that the Kabul-based UN agency relied on Taliban authorities for information.

"Pakistan has been precise in targeting terrorists and their supporters, including Afghan Taliban military installations that support terrorists," he said.

UNAMA calls for end to conflict

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, while addressing a joint session of parliament on Monday, reiterated that Islamabad "will not allow any entity — domestic or foreign — to use neighbouring territory to destabilise our peace".

UNAMA called for a halt to the fighting and warned that the violence, which has displaced an estimated 16,400 households, has worsened the situation of Afghanistan's people, who are recovering from successive earthquakes in August and September that killed more than 1,400 people.

"Restrictions on movements in the border area due to the active conflict have reduced the capacity of humanitarian agencies and partners to deliver life-saving and other assistance in the most-affected areas," it said.