Afghan gov’t says Pakistan border crossing retaken from Taliban

Afghan forces retake southern border crossing, says senior official, but Taliban dismisses the claim.

The Afghan security forces have retaken control of a crucial southern border crossing with Pakistan that the Taliban briefly captured, a senior Afghan government official has said, but the Taliban dismisses the claim, saying it still holds the town. Taliban fighters captured the Spin Boldak-Chaman border crossing on Wednesday, the second most important crossing on the border with Pakistan and an important source of revenue for the Western-backed government in Kabul. But Afghan forces retook the area’s main market, the customs department and other government installations in the border town a few hours later on Wednesday, a senior government official in the southern province of Kandahar, where the crossing is located, told Reuters news agency on Thursday.