Pakistan says another soldier dead in clashes with Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD

Pakistan on Tuesday announced that one more of its soldiers had died, while five others were wounded, in ongoing border clashes with Afghanistan, raising the overall death toll -- including civilians -- to 85, since the latest tensions erupted last week.

Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Afghan Taliban forces carried out physical attacks at dozens of locations in the southwestern Balochistan and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provinces, which Pakistani forces repelled.

One soldier from the Frontier Corps "gave the ultimate sacrifice while defending the motherland," Tarar said in a statement posted on US social media company X.

Cross-border tensions have continued since last Thursday, with both sides claiming strikes on key positions.

According to a tally of figures from both sides of the border, 85 people have been killed so far.

The death toll includes 13 Pakistani soldiers and one civilian, while 13 Afghan soldiers and 58 civilians have lost their lives as a result of the clashes. One Pakistani soldier remains missing.

The Afghan Defense Ministry said it had shot down an unmanned aerial vehicle in the Abchakan area of Logar province.

Pakistan said its air force struck a major ammunition depot and drone storage site in Jalalabad, as well as the Khogani base in Nangarhar province, according to state-run Pakistan Television.

As of Tuesday, Tarar claimed 502 Afghan Taliban operatives and suspected militants have been killed and hundreds of others injured in airstrikes and clashes since Thursday.

Kabul, for its part, claims 56 Pakistani soldiers were killed in the border clashes.

The reported casualties from both Islamabad and Kabul could not be independently verified.