Heavy fighting as Taliban push into southern Afghan city

The Afghan government deployed additional troops to a southern provincial capital on Thursday, officials and local residents said, as Taliban insurgents entered the city and sent people fleeing from their homes.

The surprise assault on Tirin Kot, capital of Uruzgan province, occurred as Taliban fighters have seized new territory across the country and staged a series of suicide bombings in the capital Kabul.

Provincial spokesman Doost Mohammad Nayab said all checkpoints around the city have been overrun or destroyed.

After hours of Taliban onslaught, Kabul sent Afghan commandos and reinforcements to Tirin Kot, backed by US airstrikes.

He said reinforcements were on the way and air raids had been launched against the Taliban.

The fighting in Uruzgan comes as the Taliban are threatening to capture Lashkar Gah in neighbouring Helmand province, and northern Kunduz, which the insurgents briefly seized a year ago in a stinging blow to Afghan forces.

As the Taliban edged closer to Tarin Kot yesterday, they promised on social media to show leniency towards government forces who surrender unconditionally.

The deteriorating security highlights the struggle of overstretched Afghan forces to secure remote provinces such as Uruzgan, a top poppy-growing region where Australian, Dutch and American troops fought for years.

Being a prized target for the Taliban group, Gen. Raziq ordered the Afghan forces earlier in August past year to execute Taliban detainees who are arrested during the military operations.

The city’s prison had fallen to the advancing militants, but its occupants had previously been transferred to the airport, said Mr Abdul Karim, the head of the Uruzgan provincial council.

A Twitter account affiliated with the Taliban boasted that the city “was about to fall” and that its fighters were “combing the streets” of Tarin Kot.

“The militants are attacking the governor’s office and the police headquarters using heavy weapons, there is intense fighting 400 meters from here”, Dost Mohammed Nayab said.

The Taliban militants group however have claimed that they have taken control of several security posts as the provincial capital is under the siege of the group.

But by afternoon, officials said they had beaten off the attacks. She said some local anti-government gunmen had joined the Taliban offensive there. The Taliban also are believed to have captured much of Uruzgan province.

Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense says its security forces are waging operations in 15 provinces.