Taliban attack on Afghan city kills, injures dozens, official says

At a news conference in Kabul, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi insisted that the government would reclaim control of Kunduz.

Fledging peace talks between insurgents and the Afghan government have been on hold following news leaked in July that the Taliban’s reclusive founder, Mullah Omar, had been dead for more than two years.

Increased activity by the Islamic State group, especially in Nangarhar province where it has been fighting with the Taliban, has put more pressure on Afghan security forces to control the extremists.

The Taliban have launched an attack on Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, capturing villages and choking off roads around the strategic city.

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”.

Sediqqi said military reinforcements were being sent to Kunduz, where government forces managed to fend off a major Taliban assault in April, the start of the insurgents’ annual summer offensive.

“Kunduz, one of the largest cities in northern Afghanistan, lies on a strategically and economically important trade route close to the border with Tajikistan”.

Taliban vehicles were in the streets and people hasd been warned to stay indoors, he said.

The insurgents launched a massive assault on the city early Monday, seizing a courthouse, a hospital and other government buildings.

Earlier, deputy presidential spokesman, Zafar Hashemi, had called the situation “fluid”, saying Ghani was “in constant contact with the security and defense leadership to provide them with guidance”.

Kunduz would be the first major city retaken by the hard-line Islamist group since it was ousted by a U.S.-led campaign in 2001.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters took control of several areas in Kunduz, Afghanistan, during a surprise attack Monday, BBC reported.

Civilian casualties in Afghanistan hit a record high in the first half of 2015, a United Nations report said last month, as Afghan forces struggle to contain the expanding conflict without North Atlantic Treaty Organisation combat troops. Zafar Hashemi said the president was “in constant contact with the security and defence leadership to provide them with guidance”.

“The mujahideen are trying to avoid any harm to Kunduz residents”, he said on Twitter.

The assault is the latest in a series of clashes between Taliban and government fighters in the northeastern province.

The Taliban denied being behind the attack in Paktika, a volatile frontier region considered a stronghold of their allies the Haqqani network.

“I can see their fighters all around”, an Agence France- Presse journalist in the city said yesterday.

A spokesman for Kunduz police Sayed Sarwar said: “Right now heavy fighting is ongoing in Khanabad, Chardara and at Imam Saheb, the main entrances to the city”.