Clashes at the Afghan-Iranian border resulted in two deaths as Taliban and Iranian forces clashed over water rights, according to Taliban authorities.

Two people were killed on Saturday when clashes broke out between Taliban and Iranian forces at the Afghan-Iranian border, Taliban authorities said, as the neighbors argued over water rights.

Iranian police confirmed the incident without providing details of casualties, while local news agency Mehr reported one Iranian border guard had been killed.

Both sides blamed the other for shooting first.

Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy head of the police force, Qassem Rezaee, as saying that “Taliban forces started shooting with all kinds of weapons” at an Iranian police station in Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Tasnim news agency reported that “light and semi-light weapons and artillery were used in the clashes.”

Even though diplomatic relations bind Tehran and Kabul, the Islamic Republic of Iran does not recognize Afghanistan’s Kabul government, and the two have been recently tense over a water dispute.

Last week, Iran demanded that Afghanistan respect its “water rights,” charging that an upstream river dam there is restricting the flow into a lake that straddles their shared border.

During a visit on May 18 to drought-parched southeastern Iran, President Ebrahim Raisi said: “I warn the rulers of Afghanistan to immediately give the people of Sistan-Baluchistan their water rights.”

The Helmand River flows from the mountains of the central Afghan province of the same name for more than 1,000 kilometers (621.37 miles) into Lake Hamoun, which straddles the Afghanistan-Iran border.

Afghanistan has blamed climatic factors for reduced river volumes.

Iran maintains that the country’s share was legally defined in a 1973 agreement between the two sides and demands that Taliban leaders uphold the deal, and last week it said Tehran “reserves” the right to act to settle the dispute.

Miroslava Salazar with AFP