Children among victims as border clashes escalate.

Three children and a woman were killed by Pakistani shelling in eastern Afghanistan overnight between Sunday and Monday, Afghan officials said.

Authorities say 18 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan over the past week amid cross border clashes between the two countries.

Pakistani forces fired mortar shells at Nari village in Gurbuz district around midnight, killing a woman and a child, said Mustaghfir Gurbuz, spokesman for the governor in eastern Khost province.

Shells also struck a market, a health clinic and another village, wounding four people including a woman. Two of the injured were in critical condition, he added.

Two more children were killed by mortar fire Sunday night in the Afghan Dubai area of Khost, the governor’s office said.

Another person died in neighbouring Nuristan province when shelling hit a civilian home, government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said on X.

Verification of casualties is difficult in the remote border areas, and both sides say they do not target civilians.

The United Nations mission in Afghanistan said at least 75 civilians have been killed since clashes intensified on February 26.

Relations between the neighbours have been strained for months, with Pakistan accusing Afghanistan of harbouring militants from the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State Khorasan Province, a claim the Afghan Taliban deny.

Recent clashes have disrupted trade and forced about 115,000 people to flee their homes, according to the UN refugee agency.