Iranian forces clash with Taliban at Afghan border

One member of the Taliban forces was killed during the clash at Nimroze, south Afghanistan, an Afghan police official said.

 Members of Taliban forces control people waiting to get visas, at the Iran embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan October 4, 2021 (photo credit: REUTERS/JORGE SILVA)
Members of Taliban forces control people waiting to get visas, at the Iran embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan October 4, 2021
(photo credit: REUTERS/JORGE SILVA)

Clashes between Taliban forces and Iran border guards on Sunday have left at least one dead on the Afghanistan side, an Afghan police official said.

"We have one killed and one wounded; the cause of the clash is not clear yet," the police spokesman of the southern Afghan province of Nimroze, Bahram Haqmal, told Reuters.

Iran: no casualties in border clash

Maysam Barazandeh, the governor of the Iranian border area of Hirmand, was quoted by the semi-official news agency Fars as saying the clashes had stopped and there were no casualties.

Iran’s Tasnim news agency said clashes broke out after Taliban forces tried to raise their flag "in an area which is not Afghan territory".

 A member of Taliban forces patrols in front of people waiting to get visas, at the Iran embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan October 4, 2021 (credit: REUTERS/JORGE SILVA)
A member of Taliban forces patrols in front of people waiting to get visas, at the Iran embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan October 4, 2021 (credit: REUTERS/JORGE SILVA)

Local sources told Reuters that people living near the border on the Afghan side fled their homes to take cover when the clashes intensified.

Since taking over Afghanistan a year ago, Taliban forces have frequently clashed with security forces of Iran, which neighbors the country to the west, as well as Pakistan, which neighbors it to the east.