Afghan forces say regaining ‘control’

Battle over Ghazni

KABUL, Aug 14, (RTRS): Afghan troops backed by US forces gained control over large parts of the embattled city of Ghazni on Tuesday, officials said, while reports of a Taleban attack in another province raised new questions about Afghanistan’s prospects.

Heavy fighting has rocked Ghazni since late last week, exposing the government’s failure to ensure the security of the strategic city on the main road between the capital, Kabul, and the south of the country.

Communications with Ghazni were cut when its telecommunications masts were destroyed in the fighting but as contact was restored and people escaped the city, a grim picture was emerging.

Video footage arriving in Kabul on Tuesday showed bodies and burned-out vehicles strewn in streets lined with destroyed buildings.

Defence ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said government forces in Ghazni were “reasserting control over strategic checkpoints”.

“Taleban militants have been pushed back. We will soon have complete control over the city,” he said.

Hundreds of people have been killed and wounded in the fighting, which followed months of warnings from officials in the city about its vulnerability as the Taleban tightened their grip on the surrounding countryside.

Government officials said nearly 100 members of the security forces have been killed along with nearly 200 insurgents and at least 20 civilians.

The Taleban said on Monday 266 members of government forces had been killed.

The violence has shattered faint hope for moves towards a peace process generated by an unprecedented three-day truce during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in June, and a Taleban report late last month of a meeting between a senior US diplomat and Taleban representatives in Doha.

While the security forces appeared to reassert control over Ghazni, the Taleban attacked and seized large parts of an army base in the northern province of Faryab, killing at least 10 soldiers and capturing dozens over two days of clashes, officials said.

Mohammad Tahir Rahmani, head of the Faryab provincial council, said the insurgents had seized tanks and ammunition.

“We have not been able to enter the base. Large parts of it are still under the Taleban control,” Rahmani said.

Another official in Faryab said the Taleban had captured 40 soldiers, while 30 militants had been killed.

The Taleban are fighting to expel foreign forces, topple the Western-backed government and impose their version of hardline Islamic law 17 years since they were ousted by US-backed forces.

Radmanish