Fierce attacks on Helmand, Kunduz by Afghan Taliban
Northern district overrun, police chief killed in south
The Taliban launched two large-scale, coordinated assaults on opposite ends of Afghanistan on Monday, attacking a northern city and killing a police chief in the south where they threatened to overrun a district in the insurgents’ heartland of Helmand.
Officials in the provinces of Kunduz and Helmand described fierce, well-planned operations, involving a large number of militants who attacked under cover of darkness.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan, attacks on civilians and soldiers claimed at least seven more lives on Monday. There was no immediate word on who was responsible.
The attacks came as President Ashraf Ghani prepared to head to Brussels for a key international aid conference this week, where he expects donors to pledge $3 billion a year in assistance for his impoverished, war-torn nation.
The Kunduz attack came a year after the insurgents took control of the city and held off Afghan security forces, backed by US troops and air power, for several days there.
Residents and officials said the fighters attacked from all directions in Monday’s assault.
Mahmood Danish, spokesman for the Kunduz provincial governor, said security forces managed to keep them at bay.
The interior ministry said a policeman was killed and four were wounded in the fighting.
A ministry statement said that the situation was being monitored in case reinforcements are needed.
Kunduz is the capital of the strategically important Kunduz province, a breadbasket region that borders Tajikistan to the north and sits on a major crossroad in the country.
The city was overrun by the Taliban in September 2015, the first time the militant group had taken a major urban centre since launching the insurgency 15 years ago.
In Monday’s attack, the Taliban used residential areas in Kunduz and Afghan “security forces are being very careful to avoid civilian casualties while shooting back at the enemy,” said Danish.
The Afghan air force was also supporting the ground forces in the fight, he added.
Taliban fighters, positioned just across the Helmand river from the centre of Lashkar Gah, a city in the south of the country, also took control of Nawa district, killing a district police chief, officials said.
Heavy fighting has also continued along the main highway to Tarin Kot, the provincial capital of Uruzgan, also in the south of Afghanistan.