At Least 19 Taliban Fighters Killed in Pakistani Drone Strikes in Southern Afghanistan

KABUL — At least 19 Taliban fighters were killed in Pakistani drone strikes in Afghanistan’s southern provinces of Kandahar and Helmand, local sources said Monday, amid escalating cross-border clashes that have brought relations between the Taliban and Islamabad to one of their lowest points in years.

The Pakistani drone on Sunday targeted a Taliban unit in Kandahar’s Spin Boldak district, killing 11 fighters, nine of them from Helmand’s Musa Qala district, sources said. Their bodies were transferred to the provincial hospital in Lashkar Gah. Among the dead was a local Taliban commander identified as Haji Nusrat.