Pakistan Rejects Afghan Claim, Says 13 Taliban Personnel Killed in Gulistan Sector

Pakistan has rejected a claim made by Afghanistan's Ministry of Defence, saying instead that 13 Taliban personnel were killed in the Gulistan sector, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.

Pakistan's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting dismissed the Afghan claim that a Pakistani post near Spin Boldak had been destroyed and that Afghan forces suffered no casualties in the incident, describing the Afghan account as fake and fabricated.

Competing claims along the border

The exchange reflects the kind of competing, contradictory claims that have periodically emerged from both sides during tensions and clashes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, with each side presenting a different account of the same incident.

Pakistan's statement asserting that 13 Taliban personnel were killed in the Gulistan sector stands in direct contrast to Afghanistan's version of events, which reportedly claimed no Afghan casualties while alleging damage to a Pakistani military post.

The Spin Boldak area, referenced in the Afghan claim, has been a recurring flashpoint in border tensions between the two countries in recent times.

Independent verification of the competing casualty and damage claims was not available in the reporting, leaving the two governments' accounts of the incident in direct dispute.