foreign ministry said early Sunday, following more than a week of deadly clashes which continued despite an earlier truce. Both countries agreed to stop fighting and work toward “lasting peace and stability” in talks mediated by Qatar and Turkey, the ministry said.

 The announcement came after Afghanistan’s Taliban leadership accused Pakistan of conducting more airstrikes on its territory, in a continuation of the worst fighting between the two nations since the Taliban returned to power in Kabul in 2021. Violence between the neighbors along their disputed, 1,600-mile border broke out on October 10 after Afghanistan first accused Pakistan of conducting airstrikes in Kabul and launched retaliatory attacks. Pakistan has long accused Kabul of harboring the Pakistani Taliban militant group (known as the TTP), which its Afghan namesake denies.

As part of the ceasefire agreement, Kabul agreed not to “support groups carrying out attacks against the Government of Pakistan,” while both sides would “refrain from targeting each other’s security forces, civilians, or critical infrastructure,” according to a statement from Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid Sunday. The countries had agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire on Wednesday, after days of clashes which killed dozens of fighters and civilians on each side. The ceasefire was extended Friday amid plans for mediation, but violence continued.

Ahead of the talks on Saturday, the Taliban confirmed a high-level delegation led by Afghanistan’s defense minister had departed for Doha. It accused Pakistani forces of conducting airstrikes on civilian areas in the border province of Paktika. While Afghanistan “reserves the right to respond to these violations, in order to maintain the dignity and integrity of its negotiating team, its forces have been instructed to refrain from undertaking new military operations at this time,” Mujahid said in a statement at the time.

Pakistan’s information minister said that its security forces had struck “verified” camps of Islamist militants along the border, and rejected that it was targeting Afghan civilians. “All speculations and assertions being made regarding targeting of civilians are false and meant to generate support for terrorist groups operating from inside Afghanistan,” Attaullah Tarar said in a post to X Saturday. (CNN)