Tehran, Iran — Iranian border guards clashed with the Afghan Taliban on Sunday, Iranian media reported, the latest cross-border exchange since former insurgents seized power in neighboring Afghanistan a year ago.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Meisam Barazandeh, governor of the border country of Hirmand in eastern Iran, as saying the incident was under investigation. He did not provide details of the clash or report casualties.
There was no immediate comment from the Taliban.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency, close to Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, said the Taliban opened fire on houses east of the county in the Shoqalak area on the other side. from the border with the Afghan province of Nimruz.
The report also said that the Taliban forces tried to raise the Taliban flag in an area that is not part of Afghan territory and after the exchange, calm returned.
Clashes have erupted repeatedly between Iranian security forces and Afghan Taliban forces at various locations along the border since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan last August. Firefights often focus on local issues such as disputes over farmland, water, or smuggling, and usually end quickly.
In some of the worst clashes last December, the Afghan Taliban seized several checkpoints on the Iranian side but quickly withdrew, and both sides called the incident a “misunderstanding”.
ABC News