VOA News
Ayaz Gul
May 31, 2016
ISLAMABAD—Afghan officials said Tuesday that the Taliban took dozens of people hostage near the northern city of Kunduz.
The insurgents apparently set up a check-point in a pre-dawn action on the main road near the provincial capital and stopped buses and vehicles heading to Kunduz from the national capital, Kabul.
A regional police commander, Sher Aziz Kamawal, told VOA that the insurgents seized at least 52 passengers and killed 17 of them. Residents saw bodies of the slain passengers floating in the nearby Chardara river.
Reports say the rebels initially detained more than 200 people, but later released majority of them.
It is unclear whether the hostages are Afghan government officials or members of the national security force, prime target of insurgent attacks in Afghanistan.
Kamawal did not rule out the possibility that there were some security forces among the hostages.
The Taliban had briefly overrun Kunduz last September.
Afghan forces recaptured the strategically important city days later with the U.S. air support. But residents say retreating insurgents setup hideouts in surrounding districts and have since conducted guerrilla attacks occasionally.
Deadly fight rages in Helmand
Meanwhile, intense clashes between Afghan forces and Taliban rebels are continuing in three districts of southern Helmand province.
The fighting in Nadali, Gereshk and Marjah began Saturday when the Islamist insurgency staged a string of coordinated attacks. Local police commanders have confirmed killing of more than 50 Afghan forces, while dozens more were wounded.
The Taliban also is said to have seized territory and the fighting has reached the provincial capital, Lashkargah.
On Tuesday, provincial governor Hayatullah Hayat undertook an inspection of the city and said reports of its collapse are misplaced.
He confirmed only 40 casualties among Afghan forces and said at least 50 rebels have been killed while another 70 were wounded in the fighting.
The governor said fresh Afghan forces have also arrived in the conflict zone and a counter-offensive is being planned.
Helmand, where several districts are under the control of the insurgency, is the largest Afghan province and a poppy-growing hub.
The Taliban has intensified insurgent activities after its new leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhnduzada took charge following the killing of his predecessor, Mullah Mansoor, in the May 21 U.S. drone strike in neighboring Pakistan.
A Taliban spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousafi, claims its fighters have killed more than 100 Afghan forces, including several commanders since the fighting began.
He says insurgents have captured nearly two dozen security posts and two large military bases in the area.
The insurgent group often exaggerates its battlefield advances.
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