An Iranian border guards Afghan Taliban officer has been killed and another injured in a clash between Iranian border guards and Afghan Taliban on the Iran-Afghanistan border.
The French news agency AFP;
reported that after the clash on Sunday, the two countries accused each other of initiating the shooting. Fars News Agency reported this statement of the governor of the border city of Harmand in Iran, Maysam Barazanda, that “there has been a clash between the border guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Taliban.”
He further said that this clash was of short duration which has now ended. Maysam Barazanda said that “today there was a border violation by the Taliban and our forces responded to them.” He further said that “there was no loss of life” from the Iranian side.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency;
says that Taliban forces opened fire on some houses in the town of Dasht Mohammad, after which there was an exchange of fire for “several minutes”.
On the other hand, in a statement issued by the provincial information center of Nimroz province of Afghanistan, Iranian border guards have been held responsible for the incident.
After that, they (Iranian forces) opened fire with light and heavy weapons in the area. In this firing, one officer of our border force was martyred and another was injured.
It should be noted that last month, Iran’s Foreign Ministry reported the death of an Iranian border guard in an ‘incident’ at the border crossing with Afghanistan in Sistan-Baluchistan.
Iran, like many other countries, has not yet recognized the new government formed by the Taliban after it took power during the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Additionally, water rights issues have also increased tensions between Iran and Afghanistan. In January, protesters in Sistan-Baluchistan rallied at a border crossing to protest water from the Helmand River.
It should be noted that Tehran has been hosting millions of Afghan refugees for decades, while more refugees have entered Iran since the return of the Taliban to power.
Iran has long had a strained relationship with the Taliban. About this attack, the Taliban said that the raid was carried out by an insurgent force acting against orders.
