A Taliban spokesman and Iranian state media reported on Saturday that shooting near a border post between Iran and Afghanistan claimed the lives of three people: two Iranian border guards and one Taliban fighter.
The incident, which also resulted in multiple injuries and was not immediately apparent what caused it, occurred as tensions between the two nations over water rights rose.
Iran has charged Afghanistan’s Taliban leaders with breaking the terms of a 1973 deal by preventing water from the Helmand river from reaching Iran’s arid eastern provinces. The Taliban have refuted this accusation.
The Taliban-run interior ministry’s spokesman, Abdul Nafi Takor, issued a statement saying that Iranian border forces had fired at Afghanistan today in the Nimroz province and that there had been a response.
Right now, the situation is under control. The official made the statement without naming the victims: “The Islamic Emirate does not desire to engage in conflict with its neighbours.
Although Iran’s official IRNA news agency later reported that two Iranian border guards had been murdered and two Iranian civilians had been injured, he claimed that one person had been killed on each side and numerous others were hurt.
The Milak-Zaranj border post, a significant commercial crossing and not the scene of the altercation, has been closed by Iranian officials following the incident until further notice, according to IRNA.
According to Qasem Rezaei, Iran’s deputy police head, Taliban fighters began firing at the Sasoli checkpoint without abiding by international law or being a good neighbour, prompting a swift response, according to IRNA.
IRNA stated that the Iranian border guards made a statement in which they claimed to have “used their superior heavy fire to inflict casualties and serious damage,” without going into further detail.
The spokesman for the Taliban defence ministry, Enayatullah Khowarazmi, stated: “Unfortunately, today there was a shooting by Iranian soldiers in the border areas of Kong district of Nimroz province, (and) a conflict… broke out.”
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan believes that diplomacy and dialogue are fair solutions to any issue. It is not in the interests of any of the parties to justify hostilities and destructive behaviour, Khowarazmi stated.
Ebrahim Raisi, the president of Iran, issued a warning to the Taliban earlier in May about their disdain for Iran’s water rights under the 1973 deal. The Taliban dismissed Raisi’s alleged threat; a former Taliban official made fun of it.
