Afghan, Pakistani forces again clash on disputed border; NATO troops broker truce KABUL - Afghan and Pakistani forces exchanged fire along a disputed border Monday, the second clash of its kind in less than a week. Both sides used artillery and mortar rounds in the two hours of fighting in the Goshta area of the eastern Afghan province of Nangahar. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force brokered a cease-fire, a senior Afghan general said. The fighting was sparked when Pakistani forces began to repair an outpost that was the focus of Wednesday's skirmish, in which an Afghan border police officer was killed. Gul Nabi Ahmadzai, the commander of the Afghan border police, said Afghan forces did not suffer any casualties Monday. He said he was not aware whether there were injuries or deaths on the Pakistani side. The clashes seem likely to add to the growing uneasiness between Afghanistan and Pakistan, both potentially key allies for Washington in its war against Taliban-led insurgents. Pakistan was a main supporter of the Taliban when it ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001. Many of the Taliban's fugitive leaders live in Pakistani territory. Washington views cooperation from Islamabad as crucial in helping to end the violence in Afghanistan as most NATO and U.S. troops prepare to leave the region by the end of 2014. Washington is pushing Islamabad to prompt the Taliban to join talks with Kabul before the withdrawal. But many Afghan leaders say Pakistan is trying to use the militants to maximize Islamabad's influence in Kabul after the Western troops leave. Kabul recently accused Pakistan of arresting and killing a number of Afghan Taliban who were staying in Pakistan and had expressed a willingness to enter into peace talks with the administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Pakistan rejects the charges. Karzai last month ordered his top officials to remove a gate and other Pakistani military installations that had reportedly been erected in the Goshta area along the disputed border, which was drawn by the British in the 19th century, when Pakistan was part of India, and India was part of the British empire. Afghanistan has never accepted the border designation. Wednesday's clash appears to have been sparked when Pakistani border forces tried to build a gate at the Goshta outpost, which it had set up months earlier. Ahmadzai said the Pakistanis have pledged as part of the NATO-brokered truce to stop setting or rebuilding gates and outposts in the border region. The spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Kabul could not be reached Monday, and the government in Islamabad issued no statement about the fighting or the reported truce.