The Taliban say blasts and gunfire in Iran targeted and killed at least 2 Afghans earlier this month

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KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Explosions and gunfire in Iran killed at least two Afghans earlier this month, the Taliban authorities in Afghanistan said on Thursday.

Iran has denied any shooting took place near Saravan, a town in the country’s restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchistan, which borders Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

A high-ranking Taliban committee has been investigating the incident for the past few weeks.

Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said the committee found that explosions and gunfire targeted Afghans in the Kalgan Valley, within Iranian territory. He did not say who was responsible for the attack.

“As of now, the bodies of two martyrs and 34 eyewitnesses, some of whom were injured in the incident, have been transported by the committee," the spokesman said. “Some of the others who were injured remain in Iran and Pakistan and the committee is actively working to locate and transfer them (to Afghanistan).”

The casualty figures are far lower than the ones given by HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people that is broadly focused on Iran. It issued reports about the shooting, citing two unidentified witnesses and others as claiming a death toll of at least dozens, with more wounded.

HalVash alleged that Iranian security forces used both firearms and rocket-propelled grenades in the attack.

Large numbers of Afghans have called Iran home for decades, from the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan through the first rule of the Taliban, the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and the 2021 Taliban takeover of the country as U.S. and NATO troops pulled out.

The United Nations’ refugee agency estimates that 3.8 million displaced people live in Iran, the vast majority of them Afghans. Some in Iran suggest the number of Afghans is even higher.

However, anti-Afghan migrant rhetoric has escalated in Iran in recent months as Western sanctions grind down its economy, with the country’s police chief saying some 2 million migrants would be deported in the next six months.

Fitrat, the Taliban spokesman, said the situation across the border was unclear as the Taliban did not have access to the Kalgan Valley area. Nor was it clear if those left there were dead or injured, he added.