Taliban 'seize provincial HQ' in Afghan city of Kunduz

[Samandri]

he Taliban say they have captured the provincial government headquarters in the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, and are advancing on the airport.
Hundreds of militants stormed the strategic city before dawn and quickly seized key buildings.

The Taliban are also reported to have captured the city jail, freeing hundreds of prisoners.

The government says it has sent reinforcements to Kunduz and fighting is still going on.

The attack came a day before the first anniversary of President Ashraf Ghani's unity government. If the city falls, it would be the first provincial capital taken by the Taliban since they lost power in the US-led invasion of 2001.

Kunduz is strategically important as it acts as a transport hub for the north of the country.

It also has symbolic significance for the Taliban as it was their former northern stronghold before their government was overthrown.

"With the capturing of the police compound and governor's office in Kunduz, the whole province fell to our hands and our fighters are now advancing towards the airport," Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid said on his Twitter account.

A picture on the same account purportedly showed fighters at a roundabout in the city centre raising the Taliban's white flag.

Earlier, the government admitted that it had lost control of parts of the city. It said at least 25 militants and two Afghan policemen had been killed and that reinforcements had been sent to the city.

Analysis: Dawood Azami, BBC World Service
This attack is one of the most serious security breaches since the start of the Taliban insurgency 14 years ago. But the Taliban's main challenge will now be to hold the city.

Kunduz has a huge strategic significance as it is considered a gateway to Afghanistan's northern provinces and shares a border with Tajikistan, Afghanistan's Central Asian neighbour.

The Taliban already control huge chunks of the province's rural areas, where the majority of the population live. The insurgents have intensified their fighting in the province over the past two years.

They are the dominant militant group in the province, with an estimated 2,000 fighters. But there are also reportedly hundreds of foreign fighters associated with al-Qaeda, so-called Islamic State and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).

The Afghan security forces are stretched thin as they deal with multiple attacks all over the country.

Bad governance in Kunduz is also a key problem. Incompetence and intimidation by some local officials have alienated many in the province.

Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Husaini told the BBC's Mahfouz Zubaide that militants had captured the jail in Kunduz and freed about 500 prisoners, including members of the Taliban.

Many government officials are trying to flee via the city's heavily fortified airport.

Kunduz province has seen a number of attacks since April, with the Taliban joining forces with other insurgents.

Militant violence has increased across Afghanistan since the departure of most US and Nato forces last year.

On Sunday, a bomb attack on a sports ground in Paktika left nine dead and dozens injured. No group has said it carried out that attack.

Also on Sunday, 300 fighters allied to the so-called Islamic State attacked checkpoints in Nangarhar province.

Two policemen were reported killed in the assault, while local officials said 60 militants were killed.

Taliban 'seize provincial HQ' in Afghan city of Kunduz - BBC News

 

[Icarus]

The opposition melted away in the face of a terrorist advance and Ashraf Ghani was too busy deciding the parameters of Pak-Afghan relationship. We had been warning the Afghans that they were not acting against terrorists congregating in Kunnar, Nuristan and Badaskshan in general and that they might soon have their hands full. Now that has come to pass.

 

[!eon]

No one expected so early fall of worshiped implemented democracy.

 

[I M Sikander]

Thanks to nato and uncle sam trained afghan forces.

What a shame, for afghan gov and afghan army. Even reserve para military forces fight better than aghan army.

 

[Imran Khan]

this was expected but still i hate this and i hate taliban

 

[I M Sikander]

No one expected so early fall of worshiped implemented democracy.

Afghans have never been a nation state, future will be the same. Afghans have always been ruled by war Lords and tribal leaders.

 

[F117]

This is the equivalent of the fall of Mosul in Iraq.

 

[The Vicious Kind]

Kunduz is up in the north near Tajikistan. It's no where near the durand line thus disproving the theory that the taliban insurgency is a Pak-afghan border phenomena and somehow its the pakistani based groups that are wreaking havoc on afghanistan and that without Pak support they would collapse. Why would they need to regroup in Fata when control districts and now even cities ?

 

[Sulman Badshah]

Gen. Murad: Afghan forces retreated from Kunduz city to prevent civilian casualties
By KHAAMA PRESS - Mon Sep 28 2015, 9:15 pm

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The deputy chief of staff of the Afghan National Army (ANA) Gen. Murad Ali Murad said the Afghan security forces retreated from Kunduz city to prevent civilian casualties.

Admitting that the security institutions had conflicting information regarding the possible attack on the city, Gen. Murad said the Afghan security forces did not fully respond to Taliban attacks as the militants have taken positions in residential houses and markets.

He said sufficient forces were present in Kunduz city as the attack was launched and air support became available on time.

The Taliban militants took full control of the city later this afternoon following hours of heavy clashes with the Afghan security forces.

A local security official speaking on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the Taliban militants have taken control of the central prison along with the intelligence compound and the UN compound, provincial governor office and provincial police headquarter.

The deputy provincial governor Hamidullah Danishi earlier confirmed that half of the city has fallen to Taliban control but the provincial government compound and some other areas are still in control of the security forces.

He said the Afghan security forces will hopeful push back the Taliban militants once additional forces have been deployed.

The Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) International earlier confirmed at least 66 patients including eight dead bodies were shifted to MSF hospital in Kunduz and at least 17 of them were in critical condition.

 

[haviZsultan]

This obsession with Pakistan is costing Afghanistan. They are facing constant attacks by the Afghan Taliban but want the durand line erased. This country will remain one of those poorly developed countries with its army hooked up to naswar for a long time. Aid cannot change that.

 

[RazorMC]

I don't want to judge, but this was a shameful act that will embarrass ANA for years.

If the national army backs away, how do they expect civilians to step up against Taliban? They will just submit to the most powerful faction/warlord in the region. Get ready for another Taliban rule.

 

[nangyale]

Taliban capture key Afghan provincial capital Kunduz
Militants capture government and UN buildings and city jail in one of the biggest military victories for movement since 2001



Alleged Taliban militants patrol on an Afghan police vehicle after they reportedly took control of most of Kunduz city, Afghanistan Photograph: EPA
Sune Engel Rasmussen in Kabul

Monday 28 September 2015
The Taliban have captured Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, taking government buildings and the city’s central prison in one of the biggest military victories for the movement since 2001. It is the most serious invasion of a provincial capital in 14 years.

The Taliban entered the city during an early morning assault on Monday, storming the regional hospital and clashing with security forces at the nearby university.

A statement from the Afghan government confirmed the city had fallen to the militants. It is the first time the insurgents have seized a major urban area since the US-led invasion in 2001.

By the afternoon, militants had reportedly captured the intelligence service headquarters, set fire to UN buildings and released hundreds of prisoners from the city’s jail, according to local journalists and residents.

Most government officials fled Kunduz early in the day, along with foreign and local NGO workers
The United Nations relocated all staff from Kunduz to other areas within Afghanistan,” said Dominic Medley, spokesman for the United Nations Assistance Mission toAfghanistan.

The attack is the culmination of months of intense fighting that began in April, when the militants opened up new fronts to take territory in the north.

Local sources said fighting could be heard inside the city from 3am. The Taliban attacked from four different districts: Chardara to the west, Aliabad to the south-west, Khanabad to the east and Imam Saheb to the north.

A western security adviser living in the city said the Taliban had captured Zakhel and Ali Khel villages on the vital highway leading south, connecting the city to Kabul and Mazar-i Sharif through Aliabad district.

The adviser added that the Taliban had made the biggest gains in the city’s south-west, where some local communities, already disenchanted with the government, had picked up weapons and joined the insurgentts

A Local reporter who visited the frontline said poor coordination between different government units allowed the Taliban to keep advancing. He said the attack seemed to be a joint offensive by militants from Kunduz and nearby Baghlan and Takhar provinces.

In addition, since spring, scores of foreign fighters have boosted the Taliban’s offensive in the north. Many pushed into Afghanistan from Pakistan when the military there launched a campaign to rid North Waziristanof militants. Others belong to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), parts of which recently pledged allegiance to Islamic State.

As in other embattled parts of the country, the Afghan security forces in Kunduz are stretched thin and are mostly fighting without foreign assistance.

The US military occasionally conducts aerial attacks around the country, most recently to push back insurgents in Helmand province, but with the Taliban entering residential areas in Kunduz, they are difficult to target with heavy artillery or airpower.

For much of the day, government officials attempted to play down the Taliban’s advances, even as Taliban fighters were posting photos on social media from inside the hospital and government buildings.

Dawlat Waziri, deputy spokesman for the defence ministry, said the army had sent reinforcements from Mazar-i Sharif and Kabul to bolster the defence of the city. He declined to say how many, only that the army had sent “enough”, and that “the Taliban will surely be defeated”.

The incursion on Kunduz is more than a PR victory for the Taliban. The city is the capital of one of Afghanistan’s wealthiest provinces, also called Kunduz, which serves as a crossroads for drugs and weapons moving between the northern provinces, and acts as a gateway to Tajikistan.

As the current fighting illustrates, the government has had problems consolidating its authority in Kunduz since foreign troops pulled out in 2013.

Much of the resistance in the province against the Taliban comes from former commanders in the western-backed Northern Alliance. Some of these commanders and their private militias have long been dogged by accusations of human rights abuses, causing widespread antipathy towards the government, and in some cases sympathy for the insurgents, in areas where abuses were rife.

Lola Cecchinel, a Kabul-based analyst, said each commander had different backers in the political establishment. “Kunduz crystalises the tensions between different political factions in Kabul,” she said, and this had caused a paralysis in the government where competing factions were loath to see one militia armed and strengthened at the expense of others.

Cecchinel added: “The central government of Kabul has no clue what to do.”

 

[N/A]

Reality paints a bleak picture for Afghanistan no permanent solution in the foreseen future. Wining a war isn't about destruction of enemy units but rather winning the minds of the population. Without the support of the Afghan people, insurgence will continue to flourish within Afghanistan. You can kill hundreds of Taliban, only to be replaced with hundreds more. Win the support of the population and decimate the chain into pieces.

 

[Sipahi]

Afghanistan is a graveyard of Afghanis rather then empires ... They will keep killing each other ... First they should get rid of this war lord mentality to get some where.

 

[F.O.X]

Good.. Now they Can Call in Support of India their all weather friend ... I am sure they will send in a Brigade or two to free the city.