TALIBAN SEEK TO CONSOLIDATE POSITION AS FEARFUL KUNDUZ RESIDENTS CREATE A ‘GHOST CITY’

KABUL A day after capturing their first major city since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, the Taliban fanned out in full force Tuesday, closing roads, throwing up checkpoints and torching government buildings as residents huddled indoors, fearful of renewed fighting as Afghan forces deployed for a counteroffensive.

U.S. warplanes carried out an early morning airstrike on Taliban positions, but government ground troops sent to try to retake Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s wealthiest and most stra- tegic cities, were stalled by roadblocks and ambushes, unable to move closer than about two kilometres toward their target. A NATO officer speaking anonymously said more airstrikes were unlikely as “all the Taliban are inside the city and so are all the people.” His words suggested the fight to retake the city would involve painstaking street-by-street fighting as government forces try to avoid civilian casualties.

Inside the city, residents were stunned by the audacity of the insurgents, who attacked Kunduz on a num- ber of fronts before dawn on Monday, taking the government, intelligence agency and military by surprise.

The insurgents used mosque loudspeakers to try to reassure people they were safe. But residents, recalling the group’s brutality during its 1996-2001 rule of Afghanistan, were fearful of what was to come. “Kunduz is a ghost city now, fear has locked people inside their homes,” said Folad Hamdad, a local freelance journalist who escaped late Monday. “No one is safe.”