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Afghan forces recapture key district from Taliban

One militant detonated a auto bomb at the gate while others tried to storm the building.

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Police will investigate how the attackers got so close to parliament.

A key district in Afghanistan’s Kunduz province which was captured by Taliban militants over the weekend was wrested back Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), killing over 80 rebels, provincial government spokesman said. I shot six – all of them are dead.

“The Taliban managed to take it over this morning as the area has been surrounded for days”, Nasruddin Saeedi, the district governor who escaped to the provincial capital, Kunduz city, told Reuters by telephone.

Mullah Abdul Salam Rocketi, a ex- fighter with the Mujahideen group and then a Taliban commander, argued however that the actual problem was a lack of authority on both sides.

The Taliban’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the government’s claims, though an independent source in Kunduz confirmed that government forces had retaken control. “Their bodies are there, everybody can see them”.

Details surrounding Mr Khan’s actions remain unclear but social media posts following the attack appear to indicate that many Afghanis are accepting him as a much needed hero following the attack.

The brazen assault on the symbolic centre of power, along with territorial gains elsewhere, highlight how NATO-trained Afghan security forces are struggling to cope with worsening militant violence.

“I knew that it was the Taliban from the first moment”.

The Afghan president has been criticized by some for pursuing peace talks, with many lawmakers and political observers also irritated that he has turned to neighboring Pakistan for help in ending the militancy, despite allegations that Pakistan supports sections of the Afghan Taliban.

Ashraf Ghani recognised Esa Khan’s “resolve and heroism” during a meeting earlier today in the presidential office and reportedly awarded him a “new home”.

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A woman was killed and around 30 civilians were wounded in the attack, according to Rahimi.

Fire and smoke rise at the site of a suicide attack during clashes with Taliban fighters in front of the Parliament in Kabul Afghanistan on Monday