A spokesperson for a pro-government Ethiopian militia, the Tigray Peace Force, told AFP that Eritrean troops have suffered "heavy losses" and are retreating toward their border after backing Tigrayan rebels; the claim could not be independently verified, and Eritrea's information minister called the militia "not trustworthy" and denied that Ethiopian troops had crossed the frontier. Ethiopian federal forces and allies were reportedly closing in on a town near the border after retaking Mekelle, the Tigrayan capital, from the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) during a two-week counter-offensive. The International Crisis Group has warned that Ethiopia and Eritrea, which fought a border war from 1998 to 2000 and recently severed relations, are "perilously close to all-out war", raising fears of a wider regional conflict in the Horn of Africa.