More than 80 people have been killed and 156 wounded in three days of sectarian violence in Pakistan’s tribal district of Kurram, near the Afghan border, authorities confirmed.

The violence, which began on Thursday, erupted when gunmen attacked convoys of Shia Muslims travelling under police escort.

More than 40 people, including women and children, were killed in that incident, triggering a series of revenge attacks between Shia and Sunni communities.

After Sunday’s negotiations, government spokesman Muhammad Ali Saif announced that Sunni and Shia leaders had agreed to a seven-day ceasefire.

Provincial officials facilitated the talks despite reports that the negotiators’ helicopter came under fire upon arriving in the region.

“The clashes and convoy attacks on November 21, 22, and 23 have resulted in 82 fatalities and 156 injuries,” a local official said on Sunday. Among the dead, 16 were Sunni and 66 were Shia, according to local authorities.

The Kurram district has long been a flashpoint for tribal and sectarian conflicts over land disputes, with periodic violence between Shia and Sunni groups.

This week’s unrest has forced hundreds of residents to flee, many seeking refuge in the nearby mountains under freezing conditions.

“We’ve been hearing gunfire all night. I sent the women and children of my family to hide in the mountains. The cold is unbearable, but we have no other option,” one Sunni villager said.

This latest bout of bloodshed follows months of deadly clashes in the region, which had already prompted tribal leaders to call for a ceasefire.

October saw a mass funeral for victims of earlier violence, showing the ongoing tensions that have left communities fractured and in fear.

The provincial government has pledged to address the underlying issues fuelling the conflict, but the fragile ceasefire shows the urgent need for sustained peace-building efforts.

For now, the region remains on edge, with many fearing that the violence could resume once the temporary truce ends.

Hezbollah says it targeted the Ashdod naval base in southern Israel “for the first time” and Tel Aviv, resulting in 500 air raid sirens sounding across north and central Israel on Sunday, sending up to four million Israelis to underground bunkers. The attack is in response to the powerful Israeli airstrike that killed at least 29 people in Beirut on Saturday.

Hezbollah also said it launched “a strategic and unprecedented operation” in southern Lebanon on Sunday, destroying six Israeli Merkava tanks and inflicting heavy casualties on Israeli forces.

Lebanese group said it also conducted an operation against a “military target” in Tel Aviv using advanced missiles and strike drones. Hezbollah is believed to have launched more than 400 rockets and drones, leading to the injury of 11 Israeli forces and some civilians.

The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks on Saturday killed 84 people, bringing the total death toll to 3,754 since 8 October 2023. The ministry added that 15,626 people have been wounded during this period. On the Israeli side, authorities say at least 82 soldiers and 47 civilians have been killed.

Meanwhile, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Josep Borell called for pressure to be exerted on both the Israeli government and Lebanon’s Hezbollah to accept a US ceasefire proposal.

Israel escalated air attacks on Lebanon on September 23, sending ground troops to southern Lebanon a week later.

Ireland, Britain, and France faced travel chaos on Saturday, and one person died as a winter storm battered northwest Europe with strong winds, heavy rain, snow, and ice.

Hampshire Police in southern England said a man died after a tree fell onto a car on a major road near Winchester early in the day.

Police in West Yorkshire said they were probing whether a second death from a traffic accident was linked to the storm. It is understood the road was not icy at the time of the incident.

Storm Bert left at least 60,000 properties in Ireland without power and closed roads and some ferry and train routes on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Channel ports and airports in Britain were badly affected, while in France, tens of thousands remained without power after Storm Caetano on Thursday. Hundreds of passengers were stranded when trains were halted by power cuts.

Media footage showed flooding in the west of Ireland, which also caused rail closures in Northern Ireland. Snow impacted travel across Britain.

The heaviest snow hit Scotland and parts of northern and central England, with dozens of flood alerts in place.

The UK Met Office issued snow and ice warnings for those regions, saying there was a “good chance some rural communities could be cut off.”

Scottish hills could see up to 40 centimetres (16 inches) of snow, while winds approaching 113 kilometres (70 miles) per hour were recorded in Britain.

Ferry operator DFDS cancelled services on some routes until Monday, with sailings from Newhaven and Dover in southern England to Dieppe and Calais in France severely affected.

Flights were disrupted at Newcastle Airport due to heavy snow, with some flights diverted to Belfast and Edinburgh.

– Blackouts –

Avanti West Coast, which runs rail services between England and Scotland, advised customers not to attempt travel beyond the northern English city of Preston, as it cancelled numerous trains.

National Highways also issued a “severe weather alert,” warning of “blizzard conditions” affecting Yorkshire and northeast England, with a number of road closures announced.

Met Eireann, the Irish National Meteorological Service, also issued a warning for “very strong winds and heavy rain.”

The worst affected areas for power outages in Ireland were in western and northwestern counties, according to ESB Networks, which runs the country’s electricity system.

“Crews and contractors are deployed and restoring power in impacted areas where it is safe to do so,” it said.

In Britain, the National Grid operator said power had been restored to “many homes and businesses,” but more than 4,000 properties across the country were still without electricity on Saturday—the majority in southwest England.

Some 47,000 homes remained without power in northern France on Saturday, two days after the country was battered by Storm Caetano, power company Enedis said.

Up to 270,000 people had been cut off due to the storm, but Enedis said it had 2,000 technicians working to reconnect electricity lines torn down by winds of up to 130 kph.

Several hundred passengers were stranded on two trains in western France halted by power cuts.

Some 200 people on a train going from Hendaye to Bordeaux and 400 on a high-speed TGV going from Hendaye to Paris spent up to nine hours in the carriages.

Junior transport minister Francois Dourovray told RTL radio that up to 1,000 passengers on different trains were affected by the power cut.

AFP