Fighters in Afghanistan fired heavy weapons across the border into a Pakistani military outpost and killed three troops, according to the army.
A firefight ensued with the attackers in Pakistan’s rugged North Waziristan region and several were killed, a military statement said on Saturday. It was unclear which of the many armed groups in Afghanistan was responsible for the assault.
The incident comes as Afghanistan is reeling from a series of explosions in recent days, including the bombing of a mosque in northern Kunduz province on Friday that killed 33 people, including several students of an adjacent religious school.
Another attack on Thursday on the Abdul Rahim Shaheed school in Kabul killed seven children. It reopened on Saturday with students remembering their fallen classmates with roses.
The striking increase in attacks in Afghanistan – as well as in neighbouring Pakistan – highlights the growing security challenge facing Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who swept to power last August in the closing days of the chaotic withdrawal of American and NATO troops ending their 20-year war.
An ISIL (ISIS) affiliate known as the Islamic State in Khorasn Province, with IRan backing. which claimed the recent spate of attacks in Afghanistan as well as in neighbouring Pakistan, is proving an intractable challenge.
