play Live Sign upShow navigation menu.css-15ru6p1{font-size:inherit;font-weight:normal;}Navigation menuNewsShow more news sectionsAfricaAsiaUS & CanadaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle EastExplainedOpinionSportVideoMoreShow more sectionsFeaturesEconomyHuman RightsClimate CrisisInvestigationsInteractivesIn PicturesScience & TechnologyPodcastsTravelplay Live Click here to searchsearchSign upNavigation menucaret-leftTrendingUS-Israel war on IranTracking Israel's ceasefire violationsRussia-Ukraine warDonald Trumpcaret-rightNews|ConflictAfghanistan says children among four killed in latest attacks by PakistanThe civilians – three children and a woman – are killed in an attack on Khost province, local official says. Listen to this article | 3 minsinfoAfghan mourners and relatives say funeral prayers for people killed during what the government says was overnight Pakistani shelling in the Gurbuz district of Khost province [AFP]By Edna Mohamed and AFPPublished On 16 Mar 202616 Mar 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoFour people have been killed, including three children, in an overnight Pakistani shelling attack in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan officials report as fighting continues for a third consecutive week. Mustaghfir Gubuz, spokesperson for the governor in Khost province, told the AFP news agency on Monday that at midnight (19:30 GMT on Sunday), Pakistani forces “fired mortar shells on the Nari village of Gurbuz district, killing a woman and a child”.
The governor’s office also said in a statement that mortar shelling killed two children in the Afghan Dubai area of Khost. Separately, government spokesperson Hamdullah Fitrat said on X that one person was killed in the eastern province of Nuristan on Sunday when shelling hit a “civilian home”. According to Afghan authorities, in the past week, cross-border fighting has killed at least 18 civilians.
On Sunday, the World Food Programme (WFP) said it had begun mobilising to provide “immediate lifesaving food” to more than 20,000 families that had been displaced in Afghanistan due to the conflict. In a news release, John Aylieff, WFP country director in Afghanistan, said: “We cannot afford to look away.” “Afghanistan is caught between two conflicts, and any further instability will push millions deeper into hunger while adding strain to a region already on the brink,” Aylieff said. Tensions boiled over at the end of February and resulted in some of the worst fighting in recent years when Afghanistan launched cross-border attacks in response to Pakistani air attacks that Kabul said killed civilians.
The attacks led to Pakistan declaring “open war” against the Afghan authorities and targeting the capital.
