Pakistan closes border crossings with Afghanistan after overnight cross-border clashes

Pakistan closed border crossings with Afghanistan on Sunday, Pakistani officials said, following exchanges of fire between the forces of the two countries overnight.

Afghan troops opened fire on Pakistani border posts late on Saturday, with the country’s ministry of defence saying this was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan earlier in the week. Pakistan said that it had responded with gun and artillery fire.

Afghanistan said it had killed 58 Pakistani soldiers, but gave no details on how it knew of the casualty figures. It also said that 20 Afghan troops were killed or injured.

There was no immediate response from Pakistan. Pakistani security officials said they had inflicted casualties on Afghan force but gave no number.

The exchange of fire was mostly over on Sunday morning, Pakistani security officials said. But in Pakistan’s Kurram area, intermittent gunfire continued, according to local officials and residents.

Afghanistan’s ministry of defence had previously said that their operation had finished at midnight local time.