Kunduz // The Taliban largely seized a major Afghan city on Monday, storming government compounds and sending panicked residents fleeing, as the militants breached a provincial capital for the first time since being ousted from power in 2001.
Fierce fighting raged in the northern city of Kunduz as the insurgents freed hundreds of prisoners from the local jail, set government buildings on fire and hoisted their trademark white flag over the homes of officials.
The Taliban’s incursion into Kunduz barely nine months after the Nato combat mission ended marks a major psychological blow to the country’s Western-trained security forces.
“The Taliban have taken the city but our forces are still putting up resistance in some areas,” said Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, adding that promised reinforcements from Kabul were yet to arrive.
Scores of bodies littered the streets after hours of heavy fighting, Afghan media reported, citing local residents, many of whom were making a hasty exit from Kunduz.
Many were fleeing to the city’s main airport, which is still in government control, but some complained they were being turned away by security forces.
The city was swarming with Taliban fighters racing police vehicles, who overran the governor’s compound and the local police headquarters.
Meanwhile, the local headquarters of the National Directorate of Security – the country’s main intelligence agency – was set on fire.
Saad Mukhtar, the head of a 200-bed government hospital, said the Taliban had control of the building and were hunting for wounded Afghan troops.
“Yes, the enemy is in the city and they have taken over the prison and other buildings, but reinforcements will be deployed and the city will be taken back,” said interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi.
In a statement, the Taliban’s new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, congratulated his cadres over the “major victory”.
It was the group’s third attempt this year to breach the city, and coincided with the first anniversary of president Ashraf Ghani’s national unity government in power.
The attack marks a major setback for Afghan forces who have been battling the Taliban without the full support of Nato, which ended its combat mission in the country last December.
The Taliban has been largely absent from cities since being driven from power by the United States and its allies, but has maintained often-brutal rule over swathes of the countryside.
A senior tribal elder in Kunduz, 250 kilometres north of Kabul, said the militants had control of one of the city’s districts, while a second elder added that his house was now around 100 metres from their front line.
Federal government officials had earlier issued strong denials that the Taliban had breached the city, insisting they were repelling the insurgents on the city’s outskirts.
This attack on Kunduz comes a day after 13 people were killed and 33 wounded at a volleyball match in the eastern province of Paktika. However, the Taliban denied being behind the attack in Paktika, a volatile frontier region considered a stronghold of their allies the Haqqani network.
Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s thinly spread security forces are increasingly having to deal with the threat from a self-styled ISIL affiliate, which is looking to make inroads in the troubled country.
The two groups are seen as engaged in a contest for influence in Afghanistan.
* Agence France-Presse
