Several Killed As Security Forces Clash Along Afghan-Pakistan Border

Nazi hills in Khost, Afghanistan where clashes erupted between Afghan and Pakistani forces on Sunday.

Troops from the Afghan border police and Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps clashed near the two countries' disputed border, leaving several dead and wounded on both sides, Afghan and Pakistani officials said.

Afghan security officials told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan on April 15 in the country's eastern province of Khost that six Pakistani paramilitary troops were killed in the clash in the Zazi Maidan district.

Pakistani officials told Reuters that two Pakistani soldiers were killed.

An Afghan border police officer and a local tribesman were also killed and two other Afghans were injured.

Abdul Hanan, the acting provincial police chief in Khost, told RFE/RL that clashes broke out in three locations along the border in the early hours of the day after Pakistani paramilitary troops ignored repeated warnings from locals and Afghan border police officers and crossed the border.

"First they targeted locals who were trying to stop them from entering our soil, and then they fired mortars on our border police," Hanan said.

Hanan's claims could not be independently verified.

A statement by Pakistan's military said the Afghan side fired on the Frontier Corps fighters while they were carrying out "routine surveillance" along the border.

The statement said two paramilitary troops were injured.

Afghanistan routinely accuses the Pakistani Army of attacking civilians and security checkpoints on the disputed border, accusations Pakistan routinely denies.

Pakistan claims it is subject to attacks by Pakistani Taliban militants that Islamabad says are based on the Afghan side of the border.

With reporting by Reuters and dpa