https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/ ... major-gain
Taliban claim Afghan border crossing with Pakistan in major gain
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Delhi and Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad, Wed 14 Jul 2021
The Taliban have claimed to have seized control of a crucial border crossing between Afghanistan and Pakistan, as their forces continue to rapidly advance in the wake of US troops pulling out, fuelling fears of the conflict spilling into Pakistan.
In one of their most strategic gains yet, on Tuesday night Taliban forces descended on the district of Spin Boldak in Afghanistan, just a few miles from the Pakistan border, and attacked several posts of Afghan troops, who reportedly surrendered immediately.
By the early hours of Wednesday, in a battle that took the lives of at least four Afghan soldiers and injured eight Taliban fighters, Taliban troops had taken full control of the city and the Afghan side of the Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing into Pakistan, one of the most crucial trade and travel routes between the two countries.
Witnesses said Taliban forces had removed the Afghan flag and raised the Taliban flag over the crossing, which is known as Friendship Gate.
Images seen by the Guardian show Taliban fighters sitting in the offices of the crossing on the Afghan side with mountains of bank notes they had seized from customs.
The Afghan government maintained its forces had not lost control of the Spin Boldak border, but Pakistan officials confirmed that they had sealed their side of the crossing after heavy fighting had broken out on the Afghan side and no one was allowed through on either side.
A Taliban fighter involved in the fighting, who asked not to be named, told the Guardian that Taliban militants had taken the district and border crossing with relative ease.
“The battle started around 10pm, and we won the first posts without any fight, the Afghan forces were surrendering to us,” he said. “When we entered the city of Spin Boldak, there was some fighting and four Afghan soldiers were killed, and Taliban forces took all their arms and vehicle. By 1am, the Taliban had taken control of immigration at the crossing.” He said the fighting was ongoing in the surrounding area but that Afghan forces had retreated from Spin Boldak district, which was now completely under Taliban control. He described the seizing of the border crossing, which is the second busiest entry point into Afghanistan, as “as good as taking Kabul” as many of the supplies going into Afghanistan’s capital come through the Spin Boldak border route.
However, the Afghan interior ministry said its security forces had repelled the Taliban’s efforts to take Spin Boldak.
Since the US began withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in May after more than two decades, the Taliban have embarked on a nationwide offensive and successfully seized swathes of the country while Afghan security forces have all but collapsed.
Control over the border crossings can be a lucrative source of customs revenue. In recent days, Taliban forces have also seized other major border crossings with Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Iran. Seizure of the Spin Boldak-Chaman crossing is particularly strategic as it provides the Taliban with direct access to the Pakistan region of Balochistan, which many Taliban leaders use as their base, and where Taliban fighters regularly travel to for medical treatment. Many Taliban fighters in Afghanistan are recruited in Pakistan and this week, there were pro-Taliban rallies in the Pakistan cities of Peshawar and Quetta. The Taliban fighter said that he had been informed that “dozens of people in the Pakistan bordering area of Chaman are ready to join the Taliban to fight jihad and take Kabul but they are unable to cross over because Pakistan has closed the border”. Locals in Chaman, the town on the Pakistan side of the border, said they had been asked not to leave their homes unnecessarily following the Taliban’s seizure of the border crossing, and the area had been put under a high security alert.
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Gautam