pakistani342
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This in on The New York Times -- I guess it may be true that the first counterattack has failed.
Article here, excerpts below:
KABUL, Afghanistan — A day after Afghan government forces ceded control of the Kunduz provincial capital to the Taliban within a few hours, the promised counterattack also appeared to be falling apart, as the insurgents on Tuesday night began advancing against security forces who were trying to rally at the airport outside the city.
Officials and local elders in Kunduz said they had yet to see all but a few of the promised government reinforcements. Even as the government reported that some of the forces had begun arriving at the airport, most appeared to be delayed on the roads to Kunduz city by ambushes and roadside bombs, local officials said.
As the crisis for President Ashraf Ghani’s government and its security forces deepened on Tuesday, he sought to assure the Afghan public that the push to win back Kunduz would succeed. Despite reports that a rout was underway in the major northern city, he insisted that it was more a matter of restraint by his security forces than of failure.
...
The hospitals in Kunduz city were overwhelmed with the flow of wounded, although the number of dead from the two days of fighting remained unclear. The main trauma center, run by Doctors Without Borders, had received 171 wounded, including 46 children, many of them in critical condition with gunshot wounds.
...
But the looting of institutions and businesses continued, including the United Nations regional branch, the Afghan intelligence agency’s provincial office, two radio stations and a number of car dealerships. Even broken-down cars were being towed out of dealerships, residents said. A vault at the central bank’s Kunduz branch was blown up early Tuesday morning, residents said.
“The Taliban are strolling around freely like this is their home,” said Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani, a member of the Kunduz provincial council, who like many Kunduz officials had retreated to the airport but was in touch with residents. “They took a lot of weapons from the intelligence agency’s office, weapons that were stocked for arming pro-government militias. We fear that there was cash and vehicles also.”
Article here, excerpts below:
KABUL, Afghanistan — A day after Afghan government forces ceded control of the Kunduz provincial capital to the Taliban within a few hours, the promised counterattack also appeared to be falling apart, as the insurgents on Tuesday night began advancing against security forces who were trying to rally at the airport outside the city.
Officials and local elders in Kunduz said they had yet to see all but a few of the promised government reinforcements. Even as the government reported that some of the forces had begun arriving at the airport, most appeared to be delayed on the roads to Kunduz city by ambushes and roadside bombs, local officials said.
As the crisis for President Ashraf Ghani’s government and its security forces deepened on Tuesday, he sought to assure the Afghan public that the push to win back Kunduz would succeed. Despite reports that a rout was underway in the major northern city, he insisted that it was more a matter of restraint by his security forces than of failure.
...
The hospitals in Kunduz city were overwhelmed with the flow of wounded, although the number of dead from the two days of fighting remained unclear. The main trauma center, run by Doctors Without Borders, had received 171 wounded, including 46 children, many of them in critical condition with gunshot wounds.
...
But the looting of institutions and businesses continued, including the United Nations regional branch, the Afghan intelligence agency’s provincial office, two radio stations and a number of car dealerships. Even broken-down cars were being towed out of dealerships, residents said. A vault at the central bank’s Kunduz branch was blown up early Tuesday morning, residents said.
“The Taliban are strolling around freely like this is their home,” said Ghulam Rabbani Rabbani, a member of the Kunduz provincial council, who like many Kunduz officials had retreated to the airport but was in touch with residents. “They took a lot of weapons from the intelligence agency’s office, weapons that were stocked for arming pro-government militias. We fear that there was cash and vehicles also.”
