A 48-hour ceasefire has been decided between Afghanistan and Pakistan, officials on both sides said, after dozens of troops and civilians were killed in the latest cross-border skirmishes.
The truce started overnight on Thursday AEDT, shortly after being announced by both countries, each asserting the other had requested it to end the surge in violence.
According to Pakistan, the ceasefire was expected to last 48 hours.
"During this period, both sides will sincerely strive to find a positive solution to this complex but resolvable issue through constructive dialogue," the Pakistani foreign ministry said.
In Kabul, Afghanistan's Taliban government said it had ordered the army to respect the truce, "unless it is violated" by the opposing side, a spokesperson said on X.
The temporary ceasefire followed a week of violence between the two neighbours.
The Taliban had launched an offensive along parts of its southern border with Pakistan, prompting Pakistan to vow a strong response of its own.
Pakistan has accused Afghanistan of harbouring militant groups led by the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) on its soil, a claim Afghanistan denies.
With both countries on edge, plumes of black smoke were seen rising above Kabul after two blasts on Wednesday, AFP reporters said.
Taliban government spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said an oil tanker and a generator had exploded, sparking fires, although he did not explicitly link the blasts to the clashes with Pakistan.
At least five people were killed and 35 wounded in Wednesday's explosions in Kabul, an Italian NGO that runs a hospital in the Afghan capital said, before the truce came into effect.
"We started receiving ambulances filled with wounded people, and we learned that there had been explosions a few kilometres away from our hospital," Dejan Panic, EMERGENCY's country director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.
Ambulances raced through Kabul, where shattered glass from damaged buildings littered the streets. Taliban forces also cordoned off some city streets.
Dozens killed in cross-border firings
Pakistan's military earlier accused the Taliban of attacking two major border posts in the south-west and north-west.
It said both assaults were repelled, with about 20 Taliban fighters killed in attacks near Spin Boldak on the Afghan side of the frontier in southern Kandahar province.
"Unfortunately, the attack was orchestrated through divided villages in the area, with no regard for the civil population," the military said in a statement.
It also said about 30 more people were thought to have been killed in overnight clashes along Pakistan's north-west border.
Children of a Pakistani soldier who was reportedly killed in fighting with Taliban security forces at the Pak-Afghan border in Chaman, attend his funeral. Source: AAP / Basit Gilani
Mujahid said in an earlier statement 100 civilians were also wounded around Spin Boldak, adding calm had returned after Pakistani soldiers were killed and weapons seized.
Pakistan's military said these were "outrageous and blatant lies".
Pakistan did not give a toll for its losses in the latest clashes but said last week 23 of its troops had been killed in the opening skirmishes.
In a separate incident, a senior security official in Peshawar in Pakistan's north-west said seven frontier troops died in an attack on a checkpoint.
The relatively new Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen armed group claimed responsibility.
The Taliban government said it had launched the offensive in "retaliation for airstrikes carried out by the Pakistani army on Kabul".
Pakistan then vowed a forceful response on the weekend, and dozens of casualties were reported on both sides.
In Khost province, Afghan journalist Abdul Ghafoor Abid with state-run television RTA was killed by Pakistani fire while covering the cross-border fighting, a Taliban official said.
