Interior Minister Noor-ul-Haq Ulumi defended the performance of the government in the initial fall of Kunduz.
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“After we got reinforcement and started a massive operation inside Kunduz city, (the) Taliban could not resist and escaped”.
“Our first priority is the safety and security of residents”, he said.
The Bala Hisar fort had been blockaded by militants for 2 days before the position was left by nearly 200 Afghan security staff after running out of ammo and food, in accordance with security officials.
Ulumi seemed to acknowledge that the Taliban was succeeding in making the government look ineffectual, saying the weakness of the government side “has always been in propaganda and marketing ourselves”. A ministry statement said 150 Taliban were killed and 90 wounded in the offensive that was overnight.
The seizure of Kunduz marked the first time the Taliban has taken an urban center since their regime was crushed in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
The Taliban’s recent gains in Kunduz and neighbouring provinces highlight that a large and strategic patch of northern Afghanistan is imperilled by a rapidly expanding insurgency.
The fall of Kunduz to the Taliban on Monday marked a major setback for Afghan government forces, who have struggled to combat insurgents with limited aid from the USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which shifted to a training and support role at the end of a year ago.
Eleven people, including six American service members, are killed when the Air Force C-130J goes down at Jalalabad Airfield.
“The Taleban know that they don’t have the power to retain control of a big city like Kunduz”, Kabul-based military analyst Atiqullah Amarkhil told Agence France- Presse.
Afghan forces, who were confined to the city’s airport, launched an overnight counteroffensive to take back Kunduz.
Mirza Mohammad Yarmand, a retired Afghan general, said the crisis reflects a disjointed command-and-control structure in the supervision of Afghanistan’s 352,000-member police force and army.
They said the hospital was running low on medical supplies and suffering from a shortage of medicine and staff as many employees had run away. “Right now, Afghan security forces are on the streets and fighting with the Taleban in a few areas outside the city”.
Under Taliban control, there were reports of “extrajudicial executions, including of healthcare workers, abductions, denial of medical care and restrictions on movement”, United Nations Special Representative for Afghanistan Nicholas Haysom said.
“The multiple credible reports of killings, rapes and other horrors meted out against the city’s residents must prompt the Afghan authorities to do more now to protect civilians”, she added.
An Afghan police officer patrols next to a burning vehicle in Kunduz on Thursday.
Preliminary information indicates that the current fighting has caused more than 100 civilian deaths and injuries, and there are concerns the number of casualties will rise. “The situation is really critical and getting worse, and I’ve just heard a huge explosion from a bomb near my house”.
“We urge the president to continue the operation in villages and districts of Kunduz so that the terrorists and Taliban are totally cleared from there”, said Ibrahimi.
It was not possible to immediately gauge how much of Kunduz was secured by the Afghan forces.
Local television showed Afghans coming out to the streets, and the Taliban white flag was replaced with the Afghan flag at the center of the city.
In a national televised press conference, President Ashraf Ghani praised the “bravery and valor of our security forces” in overwhelming the enemy “without suffering any casualties”.
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A US military spokesman in Kabul confirmed that American military aircraft conducted as many as five airstrikes “to eliminate threats to coalition and Afghan forces”.
