BBC reports that the Taliban “militants have occupied a few government buildings, including a prison, and heavy fighting is continuing” in Kunduz city, the capital of an Afghan province of the same name.
Advertisement
Militants captured the city’s airport after earlier taking the provincial governor’s office an the police headquarters, General Murad Ali Murad, the commander of Afghan ground forces, said in an interview in Kabul after a press briefing.
Yesterday 13 people were killed and 33 wounded at a volleyball match in the eastern province of Paktika.
“The Taliban has taken over our neighbourhood…”
“The mujahideen are trying to avoid any harm to Kunduz residents”, he said on his official Twitter account, referring to Taliban fighters.
Saad Mukhtar, the head of a 200-bed government hospital, said the Taliban had control of the building and were hunting for wounded Afghan troops. “Part of the city is under the control of the Taliban, including the markets, shops and a number of government buildings”.
Kunduz, about 240 kilometres north of Kabul, has twice come under attack by the Taliban this year in attempts to regain control of one of the country’s key agricultural centres.
The attack is the second time this year that the Taliban threatened to seize Kunduz, which is the main city of Kunduz province. IS expansion into Afghanistan has been a concern for both Afghan and global authorities for months, with officials warning that the extremist group was actively recruiting members from other Islamic militant groups, including the Taliban.
He said that so far 25 enemy fighters had been killed, revising down an earlier figure of 35 given by the government. They were pushed back by Afghan security forces but are believed to have regrouped and allied with other insurgents. The fighters then told the prisoners that they were free and could go home.
“The situation is very grave, and people are concerned”, said Amruddin Wali, the deputy chief of the Kunduz provincial council.
You know, this is sold as being seen as the biggest breach of a provincial city in Afghanistan since the Taliban were thrown out of power.
The province is at a strategic crossroads connecting the four points of Afghanistan, and the capture of its capital would be a major milestone in the Taliban’s almost 14-year insurgency. “Our first priority is the safety and security of residents”, he said.
Afghanistan’s NATO-trained police and army have been fighting armed rebels this year without the front-line help of foreign forces, which ended their combat mission in December 2014.
A scaled-down North Atlantic Treaty Organisation presence now mostly trains and advises Afghan forces, although USA drones still target militant leaders and a U.S. counter-terrorist force also operates in the country.
Advertisement
Governor Haji Ghalib said it was the first time IS fighters had carried out co-ordinated attacks in the province.
