Taliban launch ?large-scale? attack on Afghan city of Kunduz

[ahlam1399]

KABUL: Taliban have launched a new attack on one of Afghanistan’s largest cities, Kunduz, even as the insurgent group continues negotiations with the US on ending America’s longest war.The militant group, which has demanded that all foreign forces leave the country, now controls or holds sway over roughly half of the country and is at its strongest since its 2001 defeat by a US-led invasion.Some 20,000 US and Nato forces remain in Afghanistan after formally ending their combat role in 2014. They continue to train and support Afghan forces fighting the Taliban and a local affiliate of the Islamic State group.Presidential spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said Afghan security forces were repelling the attack in some parts of the city, a strategic crossroads with easy access to much of northern Afghanistan as well as the capital, Kabul, about 200 miles away.Seddiqi said: “As always the Taliban have taken positions in civilian areas.”The Taliban are in control of the city’s hospital and both sides in the ongoing fighting have casualties, according to city officials. The militants had taken hospital patients as hostages, defence ministry spokesman Rohullah Ahmadzai told reporters in Kabul.He said: “We could very easily attack but we don’t want civilian casualties.” The spokesman asserted that 26 Taliban fighters had been killed in an air strike but did not mention any casualties among civilians or Afghan security forces.A “massive attack” was launched by the insurgents from several different points around the city overnight, said Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, spokesman for the provincial police chief. “I can confirm that intense gun battles are going on around the city, but the Taliban have not been able to overrun any security checkpoint,” he said.Reinforcements had arrived in the city and Afghan air forces were supporting ground forces, Hussaini said. In a Twitter post, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid called the latest attack “large-scale”. The Taliban have continued bloody assaults on civilians and security forces even as their leaders meet with a US peace envoy in Qatar to negotiate an end to nearly 18 years of war. Talks were expected to continue on Saturday. Both sides in recent days have signalled they are close to a deal.The Taliban seized Kunduz, at the heart of a major agricultural region near Tajikistan, for around two weeks in 2015 before withdrawing in the face of a Nato-backed Afghan offensive. The insurgents pushed into the city centre a year later, briefly raising their flag before gradually being driven out again.http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/com/cwEr/~4/MEN-GlYFhEQ

أكثر... (http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/com/cwEr/~3/MEN-GlYFhEQ/520140-taliban-launch-large-scale-attack-on-afghan-city-of-kunduz)