Pakistan thwarts border attack, several Taliban dead, security sources say

Sept 25 (Reuters) - Pakistan has ‌thwarted an ​attempted Afghan ​attack in its border area of Gulistan, killing several members of the Afghan Taliban, Pakistani security sources said ‌on Friday, without detailing the planned attack.

The incident comes ⁠as tensions have resurfaced between the allies-turned-foes after three months of relative calm, following ‌an attack on a ‌police facility in northwestern Pakistan last week that killed at least 24 people.

The latest "retaliatory action" was taken against an attempt to ​enter Pakistani territory and commit aggression, the security sources said.

Intermittent firing was still underway between the Afghan Taliban and security forces, who ⁠remained fully alert in the border area, they said.

The Afghan Taliban did not immediately comment ​on the Pakistan allegations.

Pakistan's air force struck 10 locations in Afghanistan on Thursday that Islamabad said were being ​used to launch and store drones, .

Pakistan ‌also carried out airstrikes in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region on Monday, killing 28 militants, while Afghan Taliban ⁠officials accused it of killing three civilians in overnight strikes.

Afghanistan and Pakistan have increasingly been at odds over expanding insurgencies in their western and northwestern ⁠border region.

Islamabad accuses Kabul of harboring Islamist militants who stage cross-border attacks. Afghanistan's ​Taliban government denies this, saying militancy is Pakistan's internal problem.

The Muslim neighbors engaged in their worst fighting in years in February, and more than 400 ‌people were killed in a Pakistani airstrike on Kabul in March as tensions persisted.

The Afghan Taliban has ‌said the airstrike targeted a drug rehabilitation centre, but Islamabad denied the charge, ⁠saying it "precisely targeted military ‌installations and terrorist support ​infrastructure".

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad in Islamabad; Writing by Rishabh Jaiswal and Sakshi Dayal; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and ‌Michael Perry)

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