LIVE: Missile debris kills Indian in Abu Dhabi; Trump issues fresh threat to Iran

Renewed fighting erupted along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan on Wednesday (March 25) after a temporary ceasefire expired, killing at least two civilians and wounding others in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan Taliban officials said. The brief truce had been announced by the two sides ahead of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr.

Ziaur Rahman Speenghar, a director at the information and culture department in Afghanistan's Kunar province, said Pakistani forces fired dozens of artillery shells into the Narai and Sarkano districts, killing two civilians and wounding eight others after the ceasefire expired. Afghan border forces returned fire, he said, claiming they destroyed three Pakistani military posts and killed one person. His claims could not be independently verified. There was no immediate comment from Pakistan's military. However, a local Pakistani official in the northwest accused Afghan forces of initiating the exchange of fire in multiple areas.

The latest violence comes about a week after both sides agreed to halt hostilities following Pakistani airstrikes in Afghanistan at the request of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar. The pause followed Pakistani strikes that the Afghan Taliban government said hit a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, killing more than 400 people. That toll could not be independently confirmed.

Pakistan has denied targeting civilians, saying it struck an ammunition depot.

Separately, the Pakistani Taliban, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, said it had resumed attacks inside Pakistan after observing its own three-day Eid ceasefire. The TTP, which is separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban, has stepped up attacks inside Pakistan since the Afghan Taliban returned to power in 2021. The TTP has been designated as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the United Nations. Pakistan accuses Kabul of sheltering TTP leaders and thousands of members who carry out cross-border attacks.

Kabul denies the charge, but Pakistan has vowed to continue targeting TTP and its supporters inside Afghanistan until the Taliban government assures that it will not allow TTP and other militants to use the Afghan soil for attacks.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius on Thursday (March 26) described the Iran war as an economic “catastrophe” and said Germany did not want to get “sucked into” the conflict.

Pistorius said Germany was ready to help secure any peace once that was achieved and appealed for a ceasefire as soon as possible.

“To make it crystal clear, this war is a catastrophe for the world's economies,” Pistorius told reporters at the Australian Parliament House. “From the beginning on, we have not been consulted before. Nobody asked us before. It's not our war, and therefore we don't want to get sucked into that war,” Pistorius added.

Pistorius addressed the media in the national capital Canberra following a meeting with his Australian counterpart Richard Marles.

US forces have hit more than 10,000 targets so far in the Iran war, the head of the American military's Central Command said. US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper made the comments in a video released early Thursday (March 26) by Central Command.

“If you combine what we've accomplished with the success of our Israeli ally, together, we have struck thousands more,” Cooper said. “Our precision strikes have overwhelmed Iranian air defences and our combat flights are having tangible effects.”

Cooper added that the US has destroyed 92 per cent of “the Iranian navy's largest vessels.

“They've now lost the ability to meaningly project naval power and influence around the region and around the world,” Cooper said.

Iran maintains its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, through drone and missile attacks on shipping, however.

Cooper also said the US has struck over two-thirds of Iran's munitions plants.

“Today, we have damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of Iran's missile, drone and naval production facilities and shipyards — and we're not done yet,” he said. “We are on a path to completely eliminate Iran's wider military manufacturing apparatus.”

Satellite photos analysed by The Associated Press, though delayed by two weeks by Planet Labs PBC, have shown Israeli and US strikes targeting shipyards and missile facilities.

Iran has not acknowledged any of its materiel losses through the war.