One dead in clashes between Iranian forces, Taliban

By Syed Zafar Mehdi

TEHRAN, Iran (AA) – Fierce clashes erupted Sunday between Iranian border guards and Taliban forces in the border region of Hirmand in Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Afghan media citing Taliban authorities said at least one Taliban soldier was killed and another wounded in the violence.

While the Taliban authorities have not commented on the cause of the firefight, Iran's semi-official Tasnim News Agency said the clashes broke out after Taliban forces attempted to hoist their flag in an area "that does not fall in the Afghan territory.”

The report said Iran has erected walls in the border Hirmand region within its territory over the past several years "to prevent infiltration of smugglers and criminals,” alleging that Taliban forces misconstrued the security walls as the dividing line between the two countries.

Rasoul Mousavi, who is in charge of South Asia at Iran's foreign ministry, tweeted that the Taliban forces had taken the security wall as the boundary line.

Anadolu Agency learned from local sources that the clashes prompted people living in border villages of Hirmand on the Iranian side and Kong district of Nimroz province on the Afghan side to flee their homes.

A report in Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Hirmand Governor Meysam Barazandeh as saying that the clashes had stopped and there were no casualties. Reports in Afghan media, however, said the Taliban sent reinforcements to the area amid continuing clashes.

Since sweeping to power in Afghanistan last year, Taliban forces have frequently engaged in border skirmishes with Iranian security forces, ratcheting up tensions after years of close contact between them.

In April, the main border crossing between Iran and Afghanistan in the Islam Qala-Dogharoun border area was closed following deadly clashes between Iranian border guards and Taliban soldiers.

Reports at the time said Taliban authorities in Islam Qala district of western Herat province were paving a road in the border area, which was obstructed by Iranian border guards.

Iranian president's special envoy for Afghanistan Hassan Kazemi Qommi claimed that it was done "without prior coordination" with the Iranian side.

Before that, in December last year, clashes were reported in the border area between Iran's Shagalak and Afghanistan's Nimroz, over a border wall that Iran was constructing.

The Taliban authorities claimed that the wall was coming up on the zero point of the border, and not on the Iranian side.

The two neighboring countries share a largely porous 900-km (559-mile) border, which has often been a source of tension between them.

Sunday’s clashes came two days after Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in a phone call with Taliban's top diplomat Amir Khan Muttaqi warned that cooperation between the two sides would be affected if the protracted dispute over the Helmand River isn't resolved.

The longstanding water dispute remains the main bone of contention between the two neighbors.