Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Afghan militants attack Pakistani post

- KATHY GANNON Informatio­n for this article was contribute­d by Tameem Akhgar, Mohammad Shoaib Amin, Afghanista­n and Nasser Karimi of The Associated Press.

ISLAMABAD — Militants in Afghanista­n fired heavy weapons across the border into a Pakistani military outpost overnight, killing three personnel, the army said Saturday, in the latest violence to rattle the region.

A firefight ensued with the militants firing toward the army post in Pakistan’s rugged North Waziristan region, and several people were killed, the statement said. There was no immediate way to independen­tly confirm details of the attack.

It comes as Afghanista­n is reeling from a series of explosions in recent days, including the bombing of a mosque in northern Kunduz province Friday that killed 33 people, including several students of an adjacent religious school or madrassa.

The violence included an attack Thursday on the Abdul Rahim Shaheed school in Kabul that killed seven children. It reopened Saturday, with children rememberin­g their fallen classmates with roses.

The increase in attacks in Afghanista­n — as well as in neighborin­g Pakistan — highlights the growing security challenge facing Afghanista­n’s Taliban rulers, who swept to power in August in the closing days of the withdrawal of American and NATO troops ending their 20-year war.

Even as their religiousl­y motivated edicts, which seemed reminiscen­t of their late 1990s rule, drew harsh criticism, their seemingly heavy-handed approach to security brought early expectatio­ns of improved safety.

However, an Islamic State affiliate known as the Islamic State in Khorasn Province, or ISIS-K — which claimed the recent spate of attacks in Afghanista­n as well as a growing number in neighborin­g Pakistan — is proving an intractabl­e challenge.

ISIS-K took responsibi­lity for a series of attacks across Afghanista­n on Thursday, most of which targeted the country’s minority Shiites.

Another group, the Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP — which the United Nations says numbers around 10,000 in Afghanista­n — has stepped up its assault on Pakistan’s military outposts from its Afghan hideouts.

Afghanista­n’s Taliban rulers have promised no militant group would use its soil as a base to attack another country, but Kabul has yet to arrest or hand over any TTP leaders in Afghanista­n to Pakistan. Other militant groups also operating in Afghanista­n include China’s militant Uighurs of East Turkistan Movement, which seeks independen­ce for northwest China, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.

Some of the groups are loosely allied to the ISIS-K, while others act more independen­tly, but on Saturday Pakistan’s military statement warned Afghanista­n’s Taliban rulers to do more.

“Pakistan strongly condemns the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for activities against Pakistan and expects that the Afghan Government will not allow conduct of such activities, in future,” said the Pakistan military statement.

Separately, the Taliban on Saturday closed the lucrative Islam Qala border crossing with Iran after the two countries squabbled over a road Afghanista­n’s Taliban rulers planned to build in the area, the official IRNA news agency reported.

Iran media said the dispute was handed over to the Iranian and Afghan interior ministries to sort out.

Iran and Afghanista­n share three border crossings along their more than 560-mile border.

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