KUNDUZ: The Taliban on Monday largely seized a major Afghan city, storming government compounds and sending panicked residents fleeing, as the militants for the first time breached a provincial capital since being ousted from power in 2001.

Fierce fighting raged in the northern city of Kunduz as insurgents freed hundreds of prisoners from the local jail, set government buildings on fire and hoisted their trademark white flag over the homes of officials.

The Taliban’s incursion into Kunduz barely nine months after the Nato combat mission ended marks a major psychological blow to the country’s Western-trained security forces.

“The Taliban have taken the city but our forces are still putting up resistance in some areas,” Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini told AFP, adding that promised reinforcements from Kabul were awaited.

Scores of bodies littered the streets after hours of heavy fighting, Afghan media reported citing local residents, many of whom were making a hasty exit from Kunduz.

Many were fleeing to the city’s main airport, which is still in government control, but some complained they were being turned away by security forces.

The city was swarming with Taliban fighters racing police vehicles, who overran the governor’s compound and the local police headquarters.

The local headquarters of the National Directorate of Security, the country’s main intelligence agency, was set on fire, a security official said on condition of anonymity.

Hundreds of prisoners freed from Kunduz jail, government buildings set on fire

Saad Mukhtar, head of a 200-bed government hospital, said the Taliban had control of the building and were hunting for wounded Afghan troops.

“Yes, the enemy is in the city and they have taken over the prison and other buildings, but reinforcements will be deployed and the city will be taken back,” Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

The new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour in a statement congratulated his cadres over the “major victory”.

“Our fighters are now advancing towards the airport,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on his Twitter account. “The Mujahideen are trying to avoid any harm to Kunduz residents,” he said.

A senior government official in Kabul confirmed that the provincial headquarters had fallen and Afghan forces were regrouping at the airport.

The United Nations Assis­tance Mission in Afghanistan evacuated its Kunduz compound on Monday morning, soon after the assault began.

“They’ve been relocated within Afghanistan,” said UN spokesman Dominic Medley, declining to say where or how many staff were evacuated.

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,” Mr Danishy said by telephone from Kunduz airport after fleeing his office.

Electricity and phone services were cut across most of the city, and family members struggled to locate one another in the chaos.

“My uncle’s wife has been killed by the Taliban today and still my wife and kids are in the area that the Taliban captured, so it is important to free my family,” said Matin Safraz, an official who was visiting Kunduz for Eid.

Huge setback

This was the group’s third attempt this year to breach the city, which coincides with the first anniversary of President Ashraf Ghani’s national unity government in power.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s thinly spread security forces are increasingly having to deal with the threat from the self-styled Islamic State group, which is looking to make inroads in the troubled country.

At the weekend, it launched coordinated attacks on police checkpoints in the eastern province of Nangarhar, killing at least three officers.

The two groups are seen as engaged in a contest for influence in Afghanistan.

Published in Dawn, September 29th , 2015

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