By SUZAN FRASER and MUNIR AHMED
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered to mediate for a new ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan as border clashes between Afghanistan and Pakistan entered their sixth day on Wednesday.
The conflict erupted last week with Afghanistan launching attacks on Thursday in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous weekend. Since then, Pakistan has carried out operations along the border and declared it was in an “open war” with Afghanistan, alarming the international community.
The ongoing clashes ended an earlier ceasefire brokered by Qatar and Turkey in October, when the two neighbors had again come close to a war. The truce, signed in Qatar at the time, was followed by six days of talks in Istanbul, which resulted in an agreement to extend the truce and hold a third round of negotiations in November.
Those talks, held on Nov. 6 and Nov. 7 failed to produce any breakthrough and the process stalled.
According to a statement from the Turkish presidential office, Erdogan, in a telephone call with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “condemned the terrorist attacks in Pakistan” and said Turkey would seek to “contribute to the reestablishment of the ceasefire between Pakistan and Afghanistan.”
Sharif’s office did not directly confirm Erdogan’s offer but said the two leaders discussed tensions along the 1,622-mile-long Afghan-Pakistan border. It said the two “exchanged views on recent developments” and would remain in closer “contact in our shared pursuit of peace and stability in the region.”
There was also no immediate comment on Erdogan’s offer from the Taliban government in Afghanistan but Kabul may see the Turkish president’s comments as one-sided or even openly supporting Islamabad.
However, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had reached out to Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi last week to discuss the cross-border situation, according to the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The ministry released no further details.
Since the latest fighting broke out, both sides have since claimed inflicting heavy losses on each other in fighting that has mainly focused in Pakistan’s border regions in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and southwestern Balochistan province.
Casualty reports have vastly conflicted. The border area — where militant groups, including al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, are also active — is not accessible to the media and the Associated Press could not independently confirm any of the casualty reports.
Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its forces had killed or wounded dozens more enemy soldiers as the cross-border fighting continued. On Tuesday, the ministry said Afghan forces had killed 150 Pakistani soldiers over the previous five days, while 28 Afghan troops were killed in the same period.
Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said Wednesday that 481 Afghan troops had been killed in the past six days. The conflicting reports could not be reconciled.
Pakistan has warned that its military operations will continue until Afghanistan takes verifiable steps to rein in Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, and other militants operating from its territory.
Pakistan has repeatedly accused Kabul of harboring the TTP, a militant group responsible for a surge in attacks inside Pakistan since 2021 when the Afghan Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan. Kabul denies the charge, insisting it does not allow its territory to be used against other countries.
Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey. Associated Press writer Abdul Qahar Afghan in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.
