■ The Taliban said they seized another border crossing in Afghanistan.

Fighters say they captured crossing at border with Pakistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban are pressing on with their surge in Afghanistan, saying they seized a strategic border crossing with Pakistan on Wednesday — the latest border post to come under their control in recent weeks.

The development was the latest in Taliban wins on the ground as American and NATO troops complete their pullout from the war-battered country. On Tuesday, an Afghan official said a government delegation, including the head of the country’s reconciliation council, would meet the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, to jump-start the stalled peace talks between the two sides.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted a video purporting to show Taliban fighters Wednesday in the southeastern town of Spin Boldak along the Afghanistan-pakistan border. On the Pakistani side, residents of the border town of Chaman reported seeing the Taliban’s signature white flag flying just across the boundary line and Taliban fighters in vehicles driving in the area.

But an Afghan government official from southern Kandahar province, where Spin Boldak is located, denied that the Taliban had taken control.

The Taliban have in recent weeks taken a string of Afghan border crossings, including with Iran, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. The border crossing with Iran at Islam Qala in Afghanistan’s western Herat province is lucrative and an important trade route.

Spin Boldak is a key crossing for all goods from Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi to Afghanistan, a landlocked nation dependent on the Arabian Sea port.

Last week, the Taliban said they control 85 percent of Afghanistan’s territory — a claim that is impossible to verify but was higher than previous Taliban statements that more than a third of the country’s 421 districts and district centers were in their control. In other developments:

■ The Biden administration said Wednesday that it is prepared to begin evacuation flights for Afghan interpreters and translators who aided the U.S. military effort in the nearly 20-year war — but their destinations are still unknown and there are lingering questions about how to ensure their safety until they can get on planes.

■ Former President George W. Bush criticized the Western withdrawal from Afghanistan in an interview with a German broadcaster released Wednesday, saying he fears that Afghan women and girls will “suffer unspeakable harm.” Asked in an interview with German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle whether the withdrawal is a mistake, Bush replied: “You know, I think it is, yeah, because I think the consequences are going to be unbelievably bad.”

■ Moscow expects the Taliban to fulfill its pledge not to threaten Russia or its allies in Central Asia, the Kremlin envoy on Afghanistan said in an interview published Wednesday. Zamir Kabulov, who met with a Taliban delegation that visited Moscow last week, voiced confidence that the Taliban would focus on securing their gains in Afghanistan and wouldn’t try to challenge the countries of the region.

■ China said the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan offers the country a new chance to take its destiny into its own hands, while calling for the resurgent Taliban to cut all ties with terrorist groups.