“Security forces in Kunduz were prepared for an attack but not one of this size, and not one that was co-ordinated in 10 different locations at the same time”, Mr Sediqqi said.
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The insurgents launched a massive assault on the city early Monday, seizing a courthouse, a hospital and other government buildings.
Doctors Without Borders said they were treating over 100 wounded people and their trauma center was at “full capacity”.
The Kunduz assault marks a troubling development in the insurgency, although Afghan forces have managed to drive the Taliban back from most of the territory they have gained this year during an escalation in violence. That makes Kunduz, Afghanistan’s fifth-largest city, symbolically important and the province has been a focal point of the group’s recent military offensive.
“This would be a major blow to Ghani’s administration and a big psychological success for the Taliban”, Jawid Kohistani, a security and political analyst in Kabul, said by phone before the government announced the city’s capture.
Guilhem Molinie, the group’s Afghanistan country representative, says the hospital added 18 beds, raising its total capacity to 110, to cope with “the unprecedented level of admissions”.
By the afternoon, militants had reportedly captured the intelligence service headquarters, set fire to United Nations buildings and released hundreds of prisoners from the city’s jail, according to local journalists and residents.
Reports said 85 militants and three Afghan policemen were killed. They said photographs of President Ashraf Ghani and other leaders were torn down and the white flag of the Taliban was raised.
Earlier, local Afghan officials claimed that government forces had repulsed the attack and killed 20 militants.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attacks, adding their fighters had overrun several checkpoints and killed 12 Afghan soldiers.
He said sufficient forces were present in Kunduz city as the attack was launched and air support became available on time.
“Four bodies and 48 wounded were transferred to provincial hospitals following the fighting in Kunduz city this morning”.
This key city, Kunduz, in the northern part of Afghanistan, would give the Taliban an opportunity to surround the Kabul based government as they are already quite strong in the south of the country, according to The Washington Post.
Police spokesman in the province, Sayed Sarwar Hussaini in talks with Xinhua confirmed that the Taliban militants entered the city after suffering huge casualties. “I can see their fighters all around”, an AFP reporter in Kunduz said.
Moein Marastial, a former parliament member from Kunduz, said that a university in Kunduz has also been taken over by the Taliban.
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Government officials denied the reports and said they are battling the insurgents on the city’s outskirts.
