At least five Pakistani soldiers were killed in cross-border assaults launched from Afghanistan, the military said Sunday, marking the latest escalation of violence along the tense frontier dividing the two nations.
The military's media wing ISPR said that the two large groups of militants tried to infiltrate from two different locations of Afghanistan-Pakistan border in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
At least 25 militants including four suicide bombers were killed, it said.
Cross-border attacks, a long-standing source of friction between Islamabad and Kabul, come at a time when officials from the two countries meet behind closed doors in Istanbul for talks on lasting peace following the recent ceasefire.
Earlier this month, the neighbors had their worst border clashes in decades and a ceasefire was brokered in Doha. The second round started on Saturday with Islamabad saying failure could lead to "open war." It remains unclear how long the officials will continue their talks in Istanbul.
The military said that the timing of the "infiltration attempts" by militants "cast doubts on intentions of interim Afghan government with regards to addressing the issue of emanating from its soil."
The military referred to the Doha agreement and asked the interim Afghan government to "fulfil its obligations and deny the use of its soil" against Pakistan.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would get the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan solved "very quickly."
Addressing the border dispute on the sidelines of an ASEAN summit, Trump claimed that his administration had ended eight wars in eight months.
"Although I heard that Pakistan and Afghanistan have started up, but I'll get that solved very quickly," Trump said.
