Special forces sent to Ghazni as Taliban assault kills 120
Afghan special forces moved to embattled Ghazni overnight to try to push back Taliban insurgents who are close to overrunning the city.
The attack on Ghazni, a strategic city on the road that links capital Kabul with southern Afghanistan, has come as a severe blow to President Ashraf Ghani and dampened hopes of peace talks with the Taliban.
Diplomats in Kabul said the government had admitted being taken by surprise by the attack. After 72 hours with minimal public comment, Mr Ghani announced on Twitter that reinforcements would be sent to the city urgently.
Afghan officials said United States special forces units were helping to co-ordinate air strikes and operations, but this was unconfirmed by US military headquarters in Kabul.
Three days after the insurgents launched an assault in the early hours of Friday, news from Ghazni remains patchy, with most of the city’s telecommunications masts were destroyed in the fighting.
People who have fled have described widespread destruction and bloodshed. Afghanistan’s largest television station, Tolo News, broadcast shaky phone footage apparently showing fires raging across the blacked-out city centre.
A security official said Taliban casualties were heavy. Fifty fighters were killed by an air strike as they waited for food on Sunday.
Afghanistan’s Defence Minister, Gen Tariq Bahrami, said the battle in the eastern city has killed about 100 policemen and soldiers, and at least 20 civilians.
Gen Bahrami said yesterday that casualty figures could change. Interior Minister Wais Barmak said up to 70 policemen were among the dead.
It marks the Taliban’s heaviest blow since the militants almost overran the western city of Farah in May.
The assault has dampened hopes of the peace talks anticipated after the three-day ceasefire during the Eid Al Fitr holidays in June.
Officials in Ghazni have warned for months that the city could fall and public reaction has been bitter, with radio talk shows and social media flooded with comments denouncing the government.
“The whole of Ghazni province is on fire. President Ashraf Ghani must resign,” read a typical comment on Facebook.
Officials said Taliban fighters were knocking down walls in residential areas for easier mobility and to make it difficult for troops to target them, out of fear of hitting civilians.
“The militants know our forces will not attack civilians so they are using young men as human shields to walk around the city and set buildings on fire,” an official in Kabul said.
The insurgents also seized control of the districts of Khawaja Omari, north of Ghazni, and Ajrestan, in the west of the province. Dozens of Afghan security forces were reported killed or missing.