Afghanistan officials on Monday said six people were killed after a Tajik or Russian aircraft bombed a northeastern Afghan border district during a clash between gunmen and Tajik border guards, Reuters reported. The Takhar province governor’s spokesperson Mohammad Jawid Hejri said the area targeted was under Taliban control, Tolo News reported.

Hejri said the clash was between drug smugglers in Afghanistan and Tajik border guards and that two Tajik border guards were killed in the incident.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed the incident and said that drug smugglers and Tajik border guards were involved in the clash. “We are investigating this as Taliban fighters have no permission to clash with neighbour countries,” Reuters quoted Mujahid as saying.

An Afghan defence ministry spokesman turned down requests for a comment, Thomson Reuters reported.

A Tajik border guard spokesperson said Tajikistan had no role in the bombing and did not confirm the deaths of the two border guards. The unidentified official said intruders from Afghanistan had attacked three Tajik forestry workers, two of whom were killed.

Russia also refuted reports that its military aircraft had conducted operations near Afghanistan’s border with Tajikistan, Thomson Reuters quoted state news agency RIA as saying.

Security situation

The security situation in the north-eastern province has been on a downslide, Tolo News reported. The Taliban has attacked several check posts and clashed with Afghan security forces over the last several months.

Earlier in August, reports said at least 12 border police officers were killed in a Taliban attack in Takhar’s Dasht-e-Qala district.