Taliban Holds War Games Near Border With Iran

Amid rising tensions between Iran and Afghanistan, Taliban forces carried out a military drill near the border with Iran on Thursday.

According to the state-run Bakhtar News Agency, the Taliban military held a war game in Nimruz,located in the southwestern part of the country and to the east of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The drills came amidst growing tensions, fueled by a decades-old water dispute. Iran has accused Afghanistan's Taliban of violating a 1973 treaty by restricting the flow of water from the Helmand River to Iran's parched eastern regions, an accusation denied by the Taliban.

During May, a series of incidents escalated to bring tensions between the two countries to their worst in years, the deadliest of which seeing two Iranian soldiers and one Taliban fighter killed after shooting broke out near a border post.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had earlier warned the Taliban over disregarding Iran's water rights under the 1973 treaty while the Taliban rejected the perceived threat, with a former Taliban official mocking the president in a video that went viral.

Evidence also surfaced late last month showing a convoy of Taliban tanks deployed from Herat to Islam Qala on the border with Iran with forces seen stationed in the region with heavy military equipment, suggesting a more heavily armed presence than before the water dispute escalated.