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New fighting broke out along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border early on Wednesday morning, with each side accusing the opposing side of initiating lethal clashes.

Pakistan's military announced that its troops had killed "15-20 Taliban fighters" and wounded numerous others in the Spin Boldak district border district.

A Afghan authorities representative said that 12 Afghan civilians had been fatally struck and over a hundred wounded by artillery from Pakistan. He added that several military personnel had been lost their lives. None of the reported fatalities could be verified by third parties.

Violence between the neighbors has flared since blasts rocked Afghanistan recently, which the Afghan capital attributed on Pakistan. The Taliban deny allegations that it is harboring militants targeting Pakistan.

Online Platforms and Armed Confrontations

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

The most recent fighting follow intense border confrontations over the weekend, when the Taliban asserted to have killed 58 members of the Islamabad's armed forces and Pakistan said it killed 200 "Taliban and linked terrorists". The claimed death tolls announced by both parties could not be confirmed by external sources.

A few days of fragile calm that had persisted since the recent days were broken on Wednesday morning.

Local Accounts and Consequences

Videos purportedly of the fighting and its aftereffects have been circulated on the internet and on social channels, including images said to be of those deceased and grainy shots from night vision cameras claiming to be of check posts demolished. These videos have not been verified.

A source in the border area in Afghanistan stated that fighting broke out at around 04:00 local time (23:30 GMT on Tuesday). Another local in the district, who lives about a short distance away from the frontier post, said that "intense clashes continued for almost several hours".

"We observed unmanned aircraft and jets flying over us, some of our relatives are injured," they said.

A doctor in one of the medical facilities in the region reported that he counted "7 fatalities and thirty-six wounded brought to the medical center", including males, females and minors.

The circumstances were "tense" and more victims were being taken to hospital, he noted.

Evacuations and Global Reactions

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

In a separate night-time clash on the north-western border, the Islamabad's forces claimed that 25 to 30 Taliban and Pakistani Taliban fighters were "believed" to have been eliminated.

The clashes have led to appeals for reduced tensions from foreign nations including Beijing and Russia, as well as a suggestion from US President Donald Trump that he could intervene to facilitate peace.

On that day, Richard Bennett, UN special rapporteur on the situation of civil liberties in Afghanistan, posted on a social media platform that he was "very worried" by accounts of non-combatant deaths and displacement because of the fighting.

"I urge all parties to exercise the utmost caution, safeguard non-combatants, and follow international law," he stated.

Historical Tensions

Pakistan has long alleged the Taliban authorities of allowing the Pakistan Taliban to operate from their land and fight against the Pakistani administration in an attempt to enforce a rigid religion-based system of governance.

The Taliban leadership has always denied these allegations.