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New fighting erupted along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border early on Wednesday morning, with both parties blaming the other of starting deadly clashes.

Pakistan's armed forces stated that its troops had killed "15-20 Afghan Taliban" and wounded many in the Spin Boldak frontier area.

A Afghan authorities representative said that 12 Afghan civilians had been killed and over a hundred injured by Pakistani firing. He further stated that several military personnel had been killed. None of the reported fatalities could be verified by third parties.

Hostilities between the neighbors has flared since blasts shook Afghanistan last week, which the Afghan capital attributed on Pakistan. The Afghan leadership reject allegations that it is harboring armed groups targeting Pakistan.

Online Platforms and Military Engagements

The two sides are not only battling for the upper hand on the frontier, but also on social media, trying to persuade the public that their side is causing greater losses.

The latest fighting come after intense border hostilities over the past few days, when the Taliban claimed to have killed 58 members of the Islamabad's armed forces and Islamabad said it killed 200 "Taliban and affiliated terrorists". The reported casualty figures announced by both parties could not be independently verified.

A few days of unstable peace that had lasted since the weekend were broken on Wednesday morning.

Local Accounts and Consequences

Videos purportedly of the conflict and its aftereffects have been circulated on the internet and on messaging groups, including images said to be of those killed and blurry shots from low-light cameras purporting to be of guard positions demolished. These recordings have not been authenticated.

A informant in Spin Boldak in Afghanistan reported that fighting erupted at around 04:00 local time (11:30 p.m. GMT on the previous day). Another local in the district, who lives about a short distance away from the border crossing, reported that "intense hostilities persisted for almost five hours".

"I see unmanned aircraft and jets flying over us, a number of our relatives are injured," they said.

A medical professional in one of the hospitals in Spin Boldak reported that he counted "7 fatalities and thirty-six wounded brought to the medical center", including males, women and minors.

The circumstances were "strained" and more victims were being taken to hospital, he noted.

Displacement and International Responses

A regional authority figure in Spin Boldak announced that "hundreds of families have been forced to flee since last night due to the heavy clashes". He said they were on "maximum readiness" after a several military positions were targeted by aircraft from Pakistan. He further indicated that they had the bodies of 2 armed forces members.

In a separate overnight clash on Pakistan's western frontier, the Islamabad's forces claimed that twenty-five to thirty Taliban and local insurgent fighters were "suspected" to have been killed.

The hostilities have prompted calls for reduced tensions from foreign nations including Beijing and Russia, as well as a suggestion from US President Donald Trump that he could intervene to broker peace.

On that day, Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on the conditions of civil liberties in Afghanistan, posted on X that he was "deeply concerned" by reports of civilian casualties and evacuations because of the fighting.

"I call on everyone involved to practice maximum restraint, safeguard non-combatants, and follow international law," he wrote.

Historical Tensions

Pakistan has long alleged the Afghan Taliban of allowing the Pakistani militants to function from their land and battle against the Pakistani administration in an attempt to impose a rigid Islamic-led system of rule.

The Taliban leadership has consistently denied these allegations.