Northern Afghan city retaken from Taliban

Government security forces engaged in six-hour assault; PM warns of complacency

KABUL— The Afghan government claimed Thursday that it had successfully retaken the northern city of Kunduz from Taliban militants who had controlled the city since Monday.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, appearing at a televised news conference with his defence and interior ministers, said the city was retaken in a six-hour assault with no fatalities among the government security forces.

He praised the government troops, saying they “were able to foil one of the most significant operations to have taken place in Afghanistan in 14 years.”

Ghani warned that the “good news” from Kunduz “should not make us complacent.” “The war is ongoing,” he said. Defence Minister Masoom Stanekzai said that sporadic clashes were still taking place as government forces continue to battle pockets of Taliban insurgents. “Small guerrilla forces remain in various neighbourhoods. We have to clear all the surrounding areas and open transport links so people can come and go,” he said.

Interior Minister Noor-ul-Haq Ulumi defended the performance of the government in the initial fall of Kunduz.

Hundreds of Taliban fighters apparently entered the city over the recent Eid al-Adha and lay in wait until their operation to take the city was launched early Monday morning.

“We never took our eyes off the ball,” Ulumi said. “We had to protect citizens and so the security forces retreated.”

Ulumi seemed to acknowledge that the Taliban had scored a significant propaganda victory and was succeeding in making the government look ineffectual, saying the weakness of the government side “has always been in propaganda and marketing ourselves.”

In a statement Thursday, the presidential palace said Ghani will send a team to Kunduz to investigate how the Taliban had been able to infiltrate the city.

The fall of Kunduz to the Taliban on Monday marked a major setback for Afghan government forces, which have struggled to combat insurgents with limited aid from the U.S. and NATO troops.

The international forces’ role has shifted to training and support after NATO combat forces withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of last year.

Earlier Thursday afternoon, before Ghani’s news conference, the Taliban denied they had lost the city and the group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, claimed that it was still in their hands, saying “the Taliban flag is still flying” over Kunduz.

Sediq Sediqqi, the spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said the operation to take back Kunduz was launched late Wednesday, with ground forces moving from the airport — where they had massed since the city fell — over roads that had been mined by the insurgents.

Sediqqi claimed that control of Kunduz “was taken by 3:30 a.m.” on Thursday but conceded that an operation “to clear the city is ongoing” and could take some days.

He told The Associated Press the battle is a joint army and police operation and that roadblocks set up by the Taliban to prevent any movement had been removed.

He said essential supplies, including food and medicine, would be delivered soon to the residents.

Sediqqi said about 200 Taliban fighters have been killed in the fighting so far but did not provide a figure for government casualties.

Kunduz police chief Sarwar Hussaini said bodies of dead Taliban lay on the streets but that the clearance operation was complicated because some Taliban fighters had hidden inside people’s homes.