Taliban launch assault on strategic northern city Kunduz

“The Taliban have taken the city but our forces are still putting up resistance in a few areas”, Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini told AFP news agency, adding that the defenders were still waiting for reinforcements from Kabul.

However, locals said that the Taliban have captured Kunduz prison and set free hundreds of detainees.

A police official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed Taliban fighters had entered the government-run hospital but said it was unclear whether they were still there.

He said security forces in Kunduz, which managed to fend off a major Taliban advance earlier this year, had intelligence that another attack was being planned.

Earlier, local Afghan officials claimed that government forces had repulsed the attack and killed 20 militants.

Yesterday 13 people were killed and 33 wounded at a volleyball match in the eastern province of Paktika.

Both Afghan government leaders and the U.S.-led coalition view the defense of Kunduz as a key test of whether security forces could prevent the Taliban from expanding its reach in the country.

“The entire city is under lockdown”, said Alhaj Aminullah Nabizada, who is active in a local political party, citing accounts from local security forces and residents.

The Taliban seized control of half of a major Afghan city today, the first time they have done so since being ousted from power by a US-led invasion.

Hussaini had previously denied claims that the insurgents held any government buildings, but the Taliban posted pictures on social media of various members inside a 200-bed hospital to prove they had control of the facility. There was heavy fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces at a nearby university. The deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani described the situation in Kunduz as “fluid”. “The god news is that we have enough forces and we will chase them away soon”.

Afghanistan must ensure women have a say in negotiations between the government and the Taliban and other insurgent groups, Human Rights Watch said on Monday, warning that gains made on women’s rights could slide if they are not given a seat at the table. It quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the city was now littered with scores of bodies and heavy fighting was still on going.

But if Afghan forces can not drive out the Taliban from any of the city’s three main entrances, it would appear be hard for the government to maintain control. 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. “As fighting rages in Kunduz, all sides must ensure that civilians and civilian objects are protected according to worldwide humanitarian law, which governs all parties to an armed conflict”, said Horia Mosadiq, Amnesty International’s Afghanistan Researcher.