| Afghanistan ordered extra troops to its border with Pakistan after an exchange of artillery and mortar fire with Pakistani troops on the other side, an Afghan general said yesterday. General Khial Baz, commander of a militia division in the eastern province of Khost, said he had reports of Pakistani troops moving toward the mountainous frontier, and that he had ordered his men to also reinforce Afghan border posts. "I ordered all my troops to prepare their equipment and go toward the border," Baz said by telephone. He wouldn't say how many Afghan troops were being mobilised or when they would leave their barracks. An Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman said he was unaware of any cross-border skirmish or troop mobilisation. |