Brazen, bloody attack by Taliban increases pressure on Afghan forces

KABUL, Afghanistan—A brazen and bloody overnight assault Friday by the Taliban on a key provincial capital in central Afghanistan has increased pressure on U.S.-backed Afghan forces that are withering under relentless attacks, prompting President Ashraf Ghani to call an emergency meeting of his security officials.

While government security forces in the city of Ghazni repulsed the multipronged attack with the help of U.S. air support, Taliban insurgents remained hunkered down on its outskirts, and some were still holed up in residential areas, according to Interior Ministry deputy spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi.

At least 39 insurgents were killed, while 14 police died and 20 were wounded in the fighting, said provincial Police Chief Farid Ahmad Mashal. He said the bodies of the Taliban fighters were found under a bridge in the southern part of Ghazni.

Mashal said there were more than 100 other casualties but could not give a breakdown of the dead and wounded.

Among the injured were four Afghan troops who were hurt when their helicopter crash-landed during the fighting, said Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish. The Taliban claimed to have shot it down, Radmanish said it was not clear if the aircraft had been hit or crash-landed for other reasons.

The city of about 140,000 people was in lockdown as residents stayed indoors and reported sporadic gunfire. All shops were closed, they said, as was the highway from the capital of Kabul to Afghanistan’s southern provinces that runs through Ghazni.

The Taliban fighters set fire to the local TV building and also destroyed the telecommunications tower, located just outside the city, cutting all cellphone and land line access to Ghazni, said Ali Akbar Kasemi, a lawmaker from the city.

City hospital administrator Baz Mohammad Hemat said two wounded civilians were brought in for treatment. He feared that there were more wounded who could not make it to the hospital because the city was shut down and ambu- lances were being sent out.

Ghazni is a gateway city linking the heavily Taliban-influenced south and east of Afghanistan to Kabul and is one of the last vestiges of government control in the province of the same name. The Taliban holds sway in most of the province where ethnic Pashtuns live, while the government influence is limited to Ghazni and small pockets dominated by ethnic Hazaras.

“The security situation in Ghazni is under control. Our defense and security forces are in full control of the city,” Rahimi said.