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Fresh fighting broke out along the Pakistan-Afghanistan frontier early on Wednesday morning, with each side blaming the other of starting deadly clashes.

Pakistan's military announced that its forces had killed "15-20 Taliban fighters" and injured many in the Spin Boldak district frontier area.

A Afghan authorities representative said that 12 Afghan civilians had been fatally struck and over a hundred wounded by Pakistani firing. He further stated that several military personnel had been lost their lives. None of the alleged fatalities could be independently confirmed.

Violence between the neighbors has flared since explosions rocked Afghanistan recently, which the Afghan capital attributed on Pakistan. The Afghan leadership reject claims that it is harboring militants aiming at Pakistan.

Online Platforms and Military Confrontations

The two sides are not only fighting for the advantage on the border, but also on social media, attempting to persuade the public that their faction is inflicting more damage.

The most recent clashes come after severe border confrontations over the past few days, when the Afghan forces claimed to have killed 58 members of the Pakistani military and Pakistan said it killed two hundred "Taliban and linked terrorists". The reported death tolls provided by both parties could not be independently verified.

Several days of fragile peace that had persisted since the weekend were shattered on Wednesday.

Local Accounts and Consequences

Videos allegedly of the conflict and its aftereffects have been shared on the internet and on social channels, including footage claiming to be of those deceased and grainy shots from night vision cameras claiming to be of check posts demolished. These videos have not been authenticated.

A source in Spin Boldak in Afghanistan stated that fighting erupted at around 04:00 local time (11:30 p.m. GMT on the previous day). Another resident in the district, who lives about one kilometre away from the frontier post, reported that "very heavy hostilities persisted for almost several hours".

"We observed unmanned aircraft and jets soaring over us, a number of our family members are injured," they said.

A doctor in one of the hospitals in Spin Boldak reported that he counted "seven bodies and 36 injured transported to the medical center", including males, females and children.

The situation were "tense" and additional victims were being transferred to hospital, he said.

Evacuations and Global Responses

A local Taliban official in the area announced that "hundreds of households have been displaced since the previous evening due to the intense clashes". He mentioned they were on "high alert" after a several Taliban posts were attacked by aircraft from Pakistan. He further indicated that they had the bodies of 2 Pakistani military members.

In a separate overnight engagement on the western frontier, the Pakistani military claimed that twenty-five to thirty Taliban and Pakistani Taliban fighters were "suspected" to have been killed.

The clashes have prompted calls for reduced tensions from other countries including China and Moscow, as well as a proposal from US President Donald Trump that he could step in to facilitate a ceasefire.

On that day, Richard Bennett, United Nations representative on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, posted on a social media platform that he was "very worried" by accounts of civilian casualties and displacement because of the fighting.

"I call on everyone involved to practice the utmost caution, safeguard civilians, and abide by international law," he wrote.

Long-Standing Disputes

Islamabad has long accused the Afghan Taliban of allowing the Pakistan Taliban to function from their territory and fight against the Islamabad government in an effort to enforce a rigid Islamic-led system of rule.

The Afghan Taliban government has always rejected this.