Afghan civilians pay high price in war against Taliban

Thirty civilians were killed on Thursday but the latest bloodshed was nothing new for the people of Kunduz.

Afghan national army commandos in their armoured vehicles amid ongoing fighting between Taliban militants and Afghan security forces in Kunduz on October 4, 2016. Thirty civilians were killed in an aiShow more

KABUL // Fighting continued to rage near the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Thursday, with local residents and officials claiming that at least 30 innocent people were killed in an air strike.
The incident comes on the back of a major Taliban offensive that has triggered weeks of rising civilian casualties in the area, which residents have blamed on all sides in the conflict.
Nato admitted it was behind the air strike that took place about five kilometres from the city and pledged to investigate claims that women and children were among the dead. Earlier on Thursday, two US soldiers and three Afghan special forces troops were also killed in a firefight.
The latest bloodshed is nothing new for the people of Kunduz, who have been suffering in a slow-burning struggle for control of the province for more than a year.
In September last year the Taliban seized the provincial capital for the first time. Driven out after two weeks, they continued to roam free in outlying areas before striking at the city again last month on October 3.
The offensive unfolded in three stages, with the first wave of insurgents entering from the west before dawn. Soon afterwards, more militants moved in from the east and the north. Main roads into the city were also blocked off by the rebels.
Residents have told The National of several cases in which innocent people were killed or injured in the ensuing violence.
Jamaluddin, a father of 10, was preparing to have breakfast at his home in the neighbourhood of Khakani that morning when the Taliban assault began. As his daughter, Zakira, made a pot of tea, insurgents stationed nearby shot at a helicopter, causing it to double back and open fire on the family's house.
The bullets rained down, wrecking the building and leaving a large piece of shrapnel lodged into the right thigh of the 15-year-old girl.
"The helicopter targeted my house," said Jamaluddin, who uses only one name. He claimed it belonged to US forces, though this could not be independently verified.
The Taliban only briefly held the centre of Kunduz last month but the fighting continued elsewhere throughout much of October and shattered the lives of many innocent families. Tens of thousands of people fled the city and surrounding areas, while those that remained behind found themselves caught between the insurgents, government forces and US air strikes.
One Thursday night early in the battle, Haji Abdullah Jan left his home in the fourth police district of the city to go to a local mosque for the final prayer of the day. When he returned, his three teenage daughters - Sahiba, Feroza and Fatima - lay dead in his home, alongside his 12-year-old son, Ahmad.
They were killed when an artillery shell hit the room in which they were sheltering. Mr Jan claimed it was fired by government soldiers based at Kunduz airport.
"Some of my daughters had lost their legs and some had lost their hands," he said. "We could only look at their faces - the rest of their bodies were destroyed."
Mr Jan said that prior to the incident the governor of Kunduz had told residents in the neighbourhood to stay in their homes and assured them that no more artillery would be used on the area. "He broke his promise," he said.
Kunduz province shares a border with Tajikistan and is strategically located in the heart of northern Afghanistan. The provincial capital was the last city in the north to fall from the Taliban's grasp after the 2001 US-led invasion, but for much of the following decade it remained relatively secure.
In recent years, however, the insurgents have exploited ethnic rivalries, abuses by pro-government militias and official corruption to gain ground in many local districts.
Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani, a provincial councillor for Kunduz, told The National this week that the Taliban can still "be seen near the city and inside the city" at night.
During the Taliban's attack on Kunduz last year, American air strikes on a Doctors Without Borders hospital killed 42 people. The US described the incident as "a tragic mistake" but the aid organisation called for an independent investigation.
A recent UN report found the number of civilian casualties in Afghanistan fell by one per cent in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year. However, civilian casualties caused by pro-government forces rose by 42 per cent, resulting in 623 people killed and 1,274 injured.
Fear continues to plague residents caught in the war. Last month, Naimatullah Safi found his 26-year-old brother, Habibullah, lying by the side of a road near a police station that had been overrun by the Taliban in the first wave of the assault.
The exact cause of his injuries was unclear but his right leg was missing and his left leg was a pulp of flesh and bone. With the government-run hospital in the city overwhelmed, he rushed him to a Doctors Without Borders clinic in the neighbouring district of Chahar Dara, but it was too late. Habibullah died at 2am the next morning.
Mr Safi is frightened to say which of the warring parties might have been responsible. "If we tell the truth maybe they will cause us problems," he said. "Both the government and the Taliban can take revenge against us."
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* Chris Sands contributed to this story from the UK