Related News
Taliban seizes north Afghan city center
Print Edition
Taliban fighters battled their way into the center of Kunduz city in northern Afghanistan yesterday and seized the provincial governor’s office, in one of the most serious security breaches in 14 years of war, witnesses and officials said.
The insurgents raised the white Taliban banner over the central city square and freed hundreds of fellow militants from the local jail, in a major embarrassment for Afghan forces who abandoned a provincial headquarters for the first time.
The stunning assault came a day before President Ashraf Ghani’s unity government marked its first anniversary.
It was the second time this year that the hardline Islamist movement has besieged Kunduz city, defended by Afghan forces battling largely without NATO’s support after it pulled most of its troops last year.
The insurgents launched a surprise, three-pronged offensive before dawn, and by evening they had captured the governor’s compound and provincial police headquarters, said Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the hardline Islamist movement.
“Our fighters are now advancing towards the airport,” Mujahid said on Twitter.
A senior government official in Kabul confirmed that the provincial headquarters had fallen and Afghan forces were regrouping at the airport.
Dozens of Afghan special forces have been flown into Kunduz airport on a C-130 aircraft and were preparing to launch a counter-attack, said an anonymous official.
The Kunduz assault marks a troubling development in the insurgency, although Afghan forces have managed to drive the Taliban back from most of the territory they have gained this year during an escalation in violence.
“It is certainly the first major breach of a provincial capital since 2001,” said Graeme Smith, senior analyst for International Crisis Group. “They are choking the Afghan forces from all sides. It looks pretty grim.”
Abdullah Danishy, deputy governor of Kunduz, vowed that Afghan forces would retake the occupied city. “We have reinforcements coming from other areas and will beat back the Taliban,” he said by telephone from Kunduz airport after fleeing his office.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
