An exchange of fire between Taliban terrorists and Iranian border guards on Sunday allegedly caused one death among the Taliban, a southern Afghan police official told Reuters, though Iranian state media reports confirming the border clash made no mention of the alleged casualty.
The disputed border incident occurred on July 31 somewhere between Afghanistan’s southwestern Nimroz province and Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Balochistan province.
Tehran’s state-run Mehr News Agency confirmed that Iranian border guards engaged in an armed confrontation with Taliban fighters on July 31 but did not report any casualties in connection with the incident. Mehr described the clash as instigated by the Taliban, which allegedly “took […] provocative action and started shooting at the Iranian border guards.”
Sistan and Balochistan is a strategically located province of Iran that borders both Afghanistan and Pakistan. Iranian border guards reportedly regularly encounter challenges to their territory by the Taliban, which seized control of Afghanistan’s seat of government in Kabul in August 2021.
In addition to conflicts with Iran, reports have also been made of similar violent engagements with Pakistani armed forces along the shared border with Afghanistan. The government of Pakistan has complained that since the Taliban returned to power, attacks along their border have increased.
