Afghan forces clash with Taliban fighters in Spin Boldak after launching an operation to retake the key border crossing with Pakistan.
“The Afghan forces are fighting against the Taliban, who have taken shelter in civilian homes,” Jamal Nasir Barakzai, police spokesman for southern Kandahar province, said on Friday.
“We have suffered one death and dozens of our fighters have got injured,” Mullah Muhammad Hassan, who identified himself as a Taliban insurgent, told AFP near Chaman in Pakistan, about five kilometres (three miles) from the border.
The fight for the border comes as a war of words heated up between the Kabul government and Islamabad after the Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh accused the Pakistani military of providing “close air support to Taliban in certain areas”.
Pakistan strongly denied the claim, with a foreign ministry statement saying the country “took necessary measures within its territory to safeguard our own troops and population”.
“We acknowledge Afghan government’s right to undertake actions on its sovereign territory,” it added.
Heavy fighting
Residents of Spin Boldak, which fell to the Taliban on Wednesday, said the Taliban and army were battling in the main bazaar of the border town.
“There is heavy fighting,” said Mohammad Zahir.
The border crossing provides direct access to Pakistan’s Balochistan province, where the Taliban’s top leadership has been believed to have been based for decades, along with an unknown number of reserve fighters who regularly enter Afghanistan to help bolster their ranks.
READ MORE: Taliban agrees on ceasefire with Afghan officials in Badghis province
As fighting continued, Pakistan said Thursday it would hold a special conference on Afghanistan in Islamabad at the weekend, although Taliban officials had not been invited.
There were signs too that official talks in Doha – which have stalled for months – could stutter back to life.
An aide to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told local media his government had asked for the Islamabad conference to be postponed as negotiators were already heading to Qatar.
Taliban target Sheberghan
The fight for the border with Pakistan comes as the Taliban close in on the stronghold of long-time foe Abdul Rashid Dostum, with the insurgent group’s spokesman saying the warlord’s militia forces had fled Sheberghan, capital of Jowzjan province.
The group had “captured the gate” of the city, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a WhatsApp message, adding: “Dostum’s militia left the city and fled towards the airport.”
The deputy governor of Jowzjan confirmed that the Taliban had reached the gates of the provincial capital, but said government forces were pushing back against the militants.
For years, Dostum has overseen one of the largest militias in the north, which garnered a fearsome reputation in its fight with the Taliban in the 1990s — along with accusations that his forces massacred thousands of insurgent prisoners of war.
A rout or retreat of his fighters would dent the Kabul government’s recent hopes that militia groups can help bolster the country’s overstretched military.
The Taliban have capitalised on the last stages of the withdrawal of foreign troops to launch a series of lightning offensives across the country, capturing a swath of districts and border crossings, and encircling provincial capitals.
Foreign troops have been in Afghanistan for nearly two decades following the US-led invasion launched in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
