‘Heavy casualties’ as Iran, Taliban change gunfire at Afghan border over water rights

By Associated Press: The Taliban and Iran exchanged heavy gunfire Saturday on the Islamic Republic’s border with Afghanistan, killing and wounding troops whereas sharply escalating rising tensions between the two nations amid a dispute over water rights.

Iran’s state-run IRNA info firm quoted the nation’s deputy police chief, Gen. Qassem Rezaei, accusing the Taliban of opening fireside first Saturday morning on the border of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province and the Afghan province of Nimroz. IRNA said Iran inflicted “heavy casualties and serious damage.”

From the Taliban’s view, Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor accused Iran of capturing first. Takor said the firefight killed two of us, one from each nation, and wounded others. He described the state of affairs as now being beneath administration.

IRNA, quoting Iranian police, said two border guards had been killed. However, that amount may be better. The semiofficial, English-language newspaper Tehran Times said the stopping killed three Iranian border guards. IRNA said the Milak border crossing with Afghanistan, a big commerce route, was closed until further uncover over the gunfight.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers dialogue to be a reasonable way for any problem,” Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khawarazmi said in a press launch. “Making excuses for war and negative actions is not in the interest of any of the parties.”

The advocacy group HalVash, which evaluations on factors affecting the Baluch of us inside the predominately Sunni province of Sistan and Baluchestan, quoted residents inside the house saying the stopping handed off near the Kang district of Nimroz. It said some of us inside the house had fled the violence.

Videos posted on-line, purportedly from the realm, included the crackle of machine gun fireside inside the distance. HalVash later posted an image of what appeared to be the stays of a mortar spherical, saying that “heavy weapons and mortars are being used.”

Later films from HalVash purported to point Iranian forces firing a mortar, along with Taliban troops firing American-made machine weapons at an Iranian border publish. Other Taliban fighters drove armored cars most likely left behind by NATO forces.

Iran vowed not let the Taliban assault stand.

“The border forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will decisively respond to any border trespassing and aggression, and the current authorities of Afghanistan must be held accountable for their unmeasured and contrary actions to international principles,” IRNA quoted Iran’s police chief, Gen. Ahmadreza Radan, as saying.

The battle comes as Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi earlier this month warned the Taliban to not violate Iran’s water rights to the Helmand River. Raisi’s remarks represented a variety of the strongest however over the long-running concerns about water in Iran.

Drought has been a difficulty in Iran for some 30 years, nevertheless has worsened over the earlier decade, primarily based on the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. The Iran Meteorological Organization says that an estimated 97% of the nation now faces some stage of drought.

The Taliban seized Afghanistan in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO troops had been inside the final weeks of their pullout from the nation after 20 years of battle. In the time since, Afghanistan has grow to be most likely essentially the most repressive on this planet for women and girls, depriving them of nearly all their major rights, primarily based on the U.N. Hunger stays endemic.

While circuitously accepting the Taliban authorities, Iran has maintained relations with Afghanistan’s new rulers. Tehran moreover has generally known as on the Taliban to allow women and ladies to go to highschool.

Earlier on Saturday, the Taliban’s Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with an Iranian envoy to Afghanistan to debate the Helmand River water rights, primarily based on tweets from Afghan Foreign Ministry official Zia Ahmad. IRNA acknowledged the meeting, saying “that issues between the two countries will be better resolved through dialogue.”

But tensions have in another case been rising. Another video posted on-line in newest days purportedly confirmed a standoff with Iranian forces and the Taliban as Iranian improvement workers tried to strengthen the border between the two nations.

In newest days, pro-Taliban accounts on-line even have been sharing a video with a tune calling on the performing safety minister, Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, to face as a lot as Iran. Mullah Yaqoob is the son of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban’s late founder and first supreme chief.

“We are a government, we have power,” the tune goes. “Our leader Mullah Yaqoob will stand against Iran or we are not the republic’s government. We are not slaves, our leader Mullah Yaqoob will stand against Iran.”