A clash at the border Afghanistan shares with Iran has resulted in at least three people being killed. While the cause of the conflict was not determined, it also comes at a time when the neighboring countries are at odds over water.
On Saturday, a spokesperson for the Taliban and Iranian state media said that a clash at the border post between the two countries led to three people dead. One Taliban fighter and two Iranian border guards were the three fatalities from the incident, while several others were left injured.
“Today in Nimroz province, Iranian border forces fired toward Afghanistan which was met with a counter-reaction,” said Afghan interior ministry spokesperson Abdul Nafi Takor in a statement. “The situation is under control now. The Islamic Emirate does not want to fight with its neighbors.”
Takor did not identify the victims but said that one person from each side was killed, and several others were wounded. Iran’s IRNA news outlet said, however, that two Iranian border guards were killed and two Iranian citizens were injured in the incident. The outlet also said that following the clash, Iranian authorities closed the Milak-Zaranj border crossing until further notice despite not being the site where the incident took place.
“Without observing international laws and good neighborliness, Taliban forces started shooting at the Sasoli checkpoint, drawing a decisive response,” said Iranian deputy police chief Qasem Rezaei according to IRNA, with the outlet adding that the border guards said in a statement that they “used their superior heavy fire to inflict casualties and serious damage.”
The incident comes at a time when the two neighboring countries are in a dispute over water rights. Tehran has accused the Taliban of breaching a 1973 treaty in restricting the flow of water from the Helmand River to Iran’s eastern regions. The Taliban denied the accusations.
The clash also comes at a time when the insurgent group is under heavy scrutiny over its increasingly restrictive policies for women. Rights groups have accused the Taliban of crimes against humanity under international law due to the restrictions on women.
Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists said in a report that the Taliban’s crackdown on women’s rights in Afghanistan, paired with “imprisonment, forced disappearance, torture, and other ill-treatment,” amounted to gender prosecution in the International Criminal Court.
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