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10-04-2016, 04:11 AM
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Taliban attack Afghan city of Kunduz
KUNDUZ: Explosions echoed across Kunduz as Afghan commandos began to push back a Taliban assault on Monday, forcing residents to shelter in their homes one year after militants briefly seized the strategic provincial capital.
Government helicopters were targeting gunmen from the air in a bid to repel the attack, a day before President Ashraf Ghani is due to meet world powers at a major do**rs conference in Brussels. “People of Kunduz are panicked and trying to flee but they are caught in the middle of fighting,” Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani, Kunduz provincial council member, told AFP. “Please help us to get rid of this chaos and crises, or our people will be killed,” he said, warning the province was on the verge of collapse. Afghan commandos flown in from Kabul and led by the army chief of staff boosted local forces as they began pushing the insurgents back to the city’s outskirts, the provincial gover**r’s ****** said on Monday after**on. Special forces could be seen in the streets and some shops and businesses briefly reopened even as the sounds of fighting continued, an AFP correspondent said. “Their attack has been repelled and the security forces are retaking the areas they had lost,” gover**r Assadullah Omerkhil told reporters there, adding that “tens” of Taliban had been killed.But others warned the city was **t yet secure. “The intense fighting is still ongoing,” said provincial council head Yousuf Ayubi, while the gover**r’s spokesman Mahmood Danish said battles continued inside the city and on its outskirts.Danish also said the militants were sheltering in civilian homes. Kabul officials downplayed the strength of the attack, while NATO said it was aware of “ongoing sporadic fighting” and was working to assist Afghan forces in the area, including with air support. “At this point, we are **t observing evidence via our internal means to support the reports that Kunduz is under significant attack,” said NATO spokesman Brigadier General Charles Cleveland. The attack comes just over a year after the Taliban overran Kunduz, the only provincial capital to have fallen into their hands since they were ousted from power in 2001. Government control of the city has been shaky ever since. During that attack the Afghan forces were in disarray and US Green Beret special operations troops ended up helping the fight over several gruelling days, according to a declassified US military report.On Monday, however, the Afghan interior ministry said security forces were “fighting bravely against the terrorists”. أكثر... 
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العرض الشجري