Ayaz Gul
VOA News
October 3, 2016
ISLAMABAD — Fighting erupted in northern Afghanistan after Taliban insurgents staged a pre-dawn coordinated offensive on the strategically important city of Kunduz, which they briefly overran a year ago.
Local officials say the Islamist insurgency assaulted the provincial capital from four directions and fought their way into the city.
Residents told VOA that when they woke up Monday they saw Taliban fighters in the streets of Khakani, a western neighborhood of the provincial capital, where insurgents had taken up positions in civilian houses and were firing at Afghan security forces.
Afghan national security forces launch counter-offensive
Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri told VOA national security forces backed by air power in a counter offensive pushed back the insurgents and fighting was still raging on the outskirts of Kunduz.
“Their (Taliban) attacks have been repulsed and they have suffered heavy casualties and there is no serious threat to the Kunduz city,” Waziri asserted.
The United States military backed the government claims, saying it is closely monitoring the situation in Kunduz and coordinating with Afghan partners to assist, but it also played down reports of any immediate threat to the city.
“At this point, we are not observing evidence via our internal means to support the reports that Kunduz is under significant attack,” U.S. military spokesman Brigadier General Charles Cleveland told VOA.
He said that both the NATO-led Resolute Support mission and the U.S. military continue to train, advise and assist Afghan forces and “will continue to do so and position our capabilities, to include air support, throughout the area as needed.”
Taliban claims heavy casualties
For its part, a spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed its fighters inflicted heavy casualties on Afghan forces and were still in control of parts of Kunduz.
Separately, the Taliban also launched attacks on the Nawa district of the largest Afghan province of Helmand where insurgents are in control of several districts.
The provincial government in a statement confirmed killing of the district police chief in the fighting but denied reports any state installation was overrun by the Taliban. Afghan forces, it said, killed at least 45 insurgents, including their district commander in the fighting.
Defense ministry spokesman Waziri acknowledged intense fighting in the southern province has been raging but dismissed concerns its capital city, Lashkar Gah, is on the verge of collapse to the Taliban.
The Taliban captured Kunduz in late September, 2015, dealing a blow to internationally-trained Afghan forces. This was the first time the Islamist group had overrun a provincial capital after it was ousted from power by a U.S.-led military coalition in 2001.
Ghani heads to Brussels
The latest fighting comes as President Ashraf Ghani and his governing partner Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah left for Brussels to participate in Tuesday’s conference on Afghanistan to secure financial aid from the international community for next four years to support reconstruction efforts in their war-torn nation.
The European Union and Afghanistan are co-hosting the conference focusing on conflicts in Syria and Iraq as well as the worst migration crisis in decades is driving international attention from the Afghan problem.
Afghan leaders plan to brief the gathering on progress they have achieved in addressing challenges of security, corruption, economic and human development.
While efforts to engage the Taliban in peace talks have not yet produced results, Ghani is expected to present last week’s peace deal he signed with the second largest Afghan insurgent group, Hizb-e-Islami, as a major step towards ending the conflict.
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