Fight for Ghazni enters third day

: The fight for the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni entered its third day as Taliban militants and security forces engaged in heavy clashes Sunday, despite Kabul’s claim that the city was firmly under government control.

An AFP reporter on the ground said Taliban fighters continued to roam the city, torching government offices, and were in control of several police checkpoints, as reinforcements deployed from Kabul slowly entered the area to confront the insurgents.

Residents hid in their homes or attempted to flee the fighting, with basic provisions increasingly scarce and expensive, according to residents and officials. “The situation is chaotic,” Amanullah Kamrani, deputy head of the Ghazni provincial council, told AFP from Kabul.

“In Ghazni, only the police headquarters, governor’s office and a few departments are under Afghan forces’ control -- the rest are under the Taliban fighters’ control,” he added.

Mobile services in the city remained down after militants damaged a telecommunication tower and targeted several media offices in Ghazni, making information difficult to verify.

The descriptions stood in stark contrast to statements from Afghan and US officials, who said government forces were firmly in control of the city and vowed that Ghazni was in no danger of being seized by the Taliban.