ISLAMABAD/KABUL - Pakistan and Afghanistan clashed in the border area from late Saturday to early Sunday. Pakistan condemned Afghan provocation in the two countries' border area and demanded that the Afghan government ensure its territory is not used by terrorist elements against Pakistan. Afghanistan said any violation of its soil by anyone will not go unanswered.

Pakistan's Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the Pakistan Army, said in a statement on Sunday that militants from the terrorist group of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan launched an unprovoked attack on Pakistan along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and the security forces of Pakistan repelled the assault.

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Twenty-three Pakistani soldiers and over 200 terrorists were killed in the clash, the ISPR said, adding that precision fires and strikes as well as physical raids were directed against Taliban camps and posts, terrorist training facilities and support networks operating from Afghan territory.

Multiple Taliban locations were destroyed along the border, and a total of 21 hostile positions on the Afghan side of the border were also briefly physically captured, it said.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Sunday strongly condemned Afghanistan's provocations in the country's border area, noting that the Pakistan army gave a powerful response to Afghan aggression. The country's President Asif Ali Zardari also said in a statement that there will be no compromise on Pakistan's sovereignty.

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Afghan government chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Sunday said that retaliatory operations launched on Saturday night along the border with Pakistan left 58 Pakistani soldiers dead and injured 30 others. A total of nine Afghan soldiers were also killed and 16 others were injured during the operations.

He warned that any violation of Afghanistan's soil by anyone will not go unanswered, and the Afghan government, as well Afghan people, would defend their country's sovereignty. "However, it prefers dialogue for the solution of any problems," Mujahid told reporters at a press conference in Kabul.

Media reports said earlier that Pakistan struck Afghanistan capital Kabul and Paktika province on Thursday night, targeting the alleged hideouts of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan group. But Pakistan's ISPR did not confirm the reports.