...the Pashtun equivalent of men...from the Spin Boldak area will be faced and repelled by the Pakistain Air Force.
" Breaking: Pakistain air force has issued official warning to the Afghan Army and Air Force that any move to dislodge the Taliban from Spin Boldak area will be faced and repelled by the Pakistain Air Force. Pak air force is now providing close air support to Taliban in certain areas," Saleh wrote in a Twitter post.
This comes two days after Taliban fighters claimed that they had seized control of the Spin Boldak crossing area between Afghan and Pakistain territory.
Spin Boldak crossing is one of the key strategic locations in Kandahar province, which is adjacent to Pakistain.
Video released by the Taliban on social media showed the group's white flag flying in place of the Afghanistan’s national flag above the Friendship Gate.
This new development takes place as Pakistain has announced that it will hold a peace conference on Afghanistan in the coming days.
The meeting was originally scheduled on July 17. But it was postponed due to a trip by prominent Afghan politicians to Doha where they are set to meet with Taliban leaders about ending the current conflict.
The Taliban recently seized some other major border crossings, in Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
, Farah and Kunduz provinces.
| Courtesy of Skidmark: |
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
- Afghanistan's vice-president Amrullah Saleh accused Pakistan of providing 'close air support' for the Taliban in Spin Boldok
- Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters in Spin Boldak after launching an operation to retake the key border crossing with Pakistan
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Danish Siddiqui was killed while covering fight, embedded with the Afghan special forces
- Reuters said Siddiqui and a senior Afghan officer were killed in what they described as Taliban crossfire