Pakistan shuts key crossing into Afghanistan after border guards exchange fire

By RIAZ KHAN and MUNIR AHMED
Associated Press

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Officials say Pakistan has closed a key border crossing with Afghanistan after border guards from the two sides exchanged fire. Separately, four Pakistani soldiers and 12 militants were killed in clashes elsewhere near the Afghan border. Also, mortar fire hit a house in Pakistan near the border, killing a mother and her four children. It was not immediately clear who fired the mortar shell. Authorities said it also was not clear why Pakistan and Afghanistan exchanged fire at the border in Torkham, a town in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Officials from the two sides say they are in contact in efforts to defuse tensions.