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Clash on border

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani security forces and Afghan soldiers exchanged gunfire on the border between the two countries on Sunday, leaving at least six Afghan troops dead, a Pakistani military official said. Afghan officials gave a different account. Gen. Abdul Rahman, chief of the Afghan border police, said Pakistani heavy weapons fire hit a school, a bazaar and clinic, killing one civilian and wounding five police and three civilians. Tension has been running high between Afghanistan and Pakistan, its eastern neighbour, over controlling the 2,430-km border and stemming the flow of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants that stage cross-border attacks inside Afghanistan. Pakistan's move to fence parts of the disputed frontier has also angered Afghanistan. Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad accused the Afghan army of sparking the two-hour battle with ``unprovoked'' fire at about six Pakistani border posts. — AP

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