Pakistan Kills Two Children in Afghanistan’s Khost Province

At least two children were killed and two other civilians wounded in eastern Afghanistan on Sunday after Pakistani artillery shells struck residential areas, according to officials from the Taliban-led administration.

Mastaghfar Gurbaz, a spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost Province, confirmed that the artillery fire hit civilian homes in the “Afghan-Dubai” area of the Spera district, which lies near the contentious border with Pakistan. Local sources from the area added that several houses were either damaged or completely destroyed during the shelling, provoking fear and panic among villagers living in the border belt.

In a separate incident reported on the same day, cross-border artillery fire in the Kamdesh district of Nuristan Province resulted in another civilian fatality. Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesperson for the Taliban administration, stated that a house was burned to the ground in that strike.

These incidents are the latest in a sharp escalation of cross-border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban. Over recent weeks, both sides have accused eachother of breaching security, leading to frequent exchanges of artillery, claims of airstrikes, and sporadic clashes along the porous frontier.

The military escalation coincides with a deteriorating humanitarian situation, exacerbated by Pakistan’s ongoing crackdown and forced deportation campaign targeting undocumented Afghan refugees and citizens. The campaign, which has intensified over the last year, has pushed hundreds of thousands of families back into Afghanistan, straining the country’s limited resources amid an already severe economic crisis.

Afghanistan continues to grapple with widespread poverty, rising living costs, and a fragile health and education system, leaving millions entirely dependent on international humanitarian assistance to survive.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) recently reported that the ongoing clashes along the border have taken a heavy toll on civilians. According to their findings, approximately 75 civilians have been killed in recent months amid the cross-border fire between Pakistani forces and Taliban fighters.

Observers warn that the continued border violence, combined with the immense humanitarian pressure from returning refugees, threatens to further destabilize the already fragile regions along the Afghanistan-Pakistan frontier.

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