Afghan Taliban fighters storm Ghazni city

[!eon]

Reuters
August 10, 2018


Heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked Ghazni city in central Afghanistan early on Friday, shelling houses and business areas and gaining control of parts of the city centre.

The attack on a strategic city straddling the main route between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan demonstrated the Taliban's strength amid increased speculation about a possible ceasefire during the Eid Al Adha holiday this month.

Officials said clashes between government forces and the Taliban started overnight, forcing authorities to close the highway linking it to Kabul, 150 kilometres to the north-east.

"The Taliban are dropping missiles near residential and commercial areas. There has not been a single minute of silence for the last eight hours," said a senior government official in Ghazni.

A second government official said it was too dangerous for people to leave their homes and he had no immediate details on casualties.

"It is not possible to get out of our homes to help the injured or collect bodies," he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said parts of the city had been seized by the Taliban and many people were killed.

The attack on Ghazni followed a similar assault on Farah in May, when insurgents came close to overrunning the city in western Afghanistan.

Taliban militants and insurgents belonging to the other groups have been active in Ghazni province, and Taliban fighters captured a district there and killed its governor in April.

 

[!eon]

Afghan Taliban Launches Major Attack On Provincial Capital Ghazni

The Taliban began the attack late on August 9 from several positions around the city 150 kilometers southwest of Kabul, provincial officials said.

@Sarah Ahmadzai

 

[Maxpane]

Bad news

 

[Suff Shikan]

Bad news

whts bad in it?

 

[Maxpane]

Bloodshed casualties destruction

 

[!eon]

Bloodshed casualties destruction

Freedom is not free of cost

 

[ejaz007]

Dozens dead as Taliban attacks Afghanistan's Ghazni
At least 39 fighters and 14 soldiers killed in clashes after armed group entered strategic city near Kabul overnight.

7 minutes ago

Afghanistan's defence ministry said the army helped the police and that Ghazni city was now under control of government forces [Parwiz/Reuters]
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Taliban fighters have attacked Ghazni, Afghanistan'seastern provincial capital, leaving dead and wounded before Afghan forces pushed them out of the city, officials said.

The attack on Ghazni city began overnight on Friday.

Within hours, the Taliban claimed to have much of the capital under their control.

US attack helicopters and drone aircraft provided government forces with air support.

Defence Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish later said the army supported police and the city was now under control of government forces.

Al Jazeera's Charlotte Bellis, reporting from Kabul, said it was unclear how much of Ghazni was under government control as residents said they could still hear heavy gunfire and rockets.

"There are conflicting reports as residents say the Taliban has taken control of checkpoints across the city from the police.

"[But] the police, the government and the US are denying that claim, saying they have pushed back the fighters."

At least 14 security forces were killed and 20 wounded in the battle, said Baz Mohammad Hemat, administrator of the Ghazni city hospital.

Dead bodies of Taliban fighters remained on the street after the exchange, provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Mashal told the Associated Press news agency.

He said the bodies of 39 Taliban soldiers were recovered beneath a bridge in the southern edge of the city.

Air strikes called in to quash the offensive also killed dozens of Taliban, he said.

All shops in the city were closed due to the fighting. The road from Kabul to Afghanistan's southern provinces was also closed because it runs through Ghazni.

The attack on the strategic city, which straddles the main route between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan, demonstrated the Taliban's strength amid speculation of a possible ceasefire during the Eid holiday this month.

In June, a three-day truce over the Eid al-Fitr holiday brought unprecedented scenes of unarmed Taliban fighters mingling with security forces in Kabul and other cities, offering a glimpse of peace and fuelling hopes of negotiations to end the war.

The Taliban have so far failed to take and hold any provincial centre since they overran the northern city of Kunduz in 2015 before being driven off, with the support of US air strikes and Special Forces units.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/08/taliban-pushed-attack-afghanistan-ghazni-180810052449824.html

 

[GiannKall]

Whole Afghanistan is like this. Taliban completely control the countryside while government controls cities. Taliban know that they cannot conquer cities, at least not for a long time, but they will continue besieging them. When NATO leaves all these cities will fall at once to the hands of the Taliban. Kabul will fall in a year

 

[ali_raza]

ghazni should be part of pakistan

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Whole Afghanistan is like this. Taliban completely control the countryside while government controls cities. Taliban know that they cannot conquer cities, at least not for a long time, but they will continue besieging them. When NATO leaves all these cities will fall at once to the hands of the Taliban. Kabul will fall in a year

When USSR withdrew from Afghanistan the cities resisted for 3 years before falling.

 

[Path-Finder]

sad state of affairs, If only a peaceful solution was sought many years ago but egos get in the way.

 

[Path-Finder]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1028375632475041793