Taliban flag flies again over key Afghan city of Kunduz
Kabul: Taliban fighters seized most of the capital of northern Afghanistan’s key Kunduz province on Sunday, and took another neighbouring provincial capital after a month-long siege. The advances were the latest in a series of blows to government forces as US troops complete their pullout after nearly two decades in the country.
A Taliban flag flies in the main square of Kunduz city after fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces, in Kunduz, Afghanistan.Credit:AP
The militiamen planted their flag in the main square of Kunduz city, where it was seen flying atop a traffic police booth.
It was the fourth provincial capital to largely succumb to Taliban fighters in less than a week, as they ramp up a push across Afghan’s regions, and wage an assassination campaign in the capital, Kabul.
Two provincial council members said the Taliban took control of the governor’s office and police headquarters after a day of firefights, as well as the main prison building, where 500 inmates including Taliban fighters were freed.
Kunduz’s capture would be a significant gain for the Taliban and a test of their ability to take and retain territory in their campaign against the Western-backed government.
It is one of the country’s larger cities with a population of more than 340,000, and was a key area defended against Taliban takeover by Western troops over the years.
Afghans inspect damaged shops after fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces in Kunduz city, northern Afghanistan.Credit:AP
Councilman Ghulam Rabani Rabani said that fighting was continuing at the city’s airport and other parts of the city still in government hands. Kunduz is a strategic crossroads with good access to much of northern Afghanistan as well as Kabul, about 335 kilometres away.
Another provincial council member from Kunduz, Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, also said Afghan forces only control the airport and main army barracks, and that the Taliban control the rest of the city.
“The innocent and poor must pay the cost of the war in Kunduz and other parts of the country, both government forces and the Taliban are the enemy of civilians,†said Ayubi. “One can’t provide security and the other doesn’t care about people’s safety,†he added.
The Afghan government in Kabul denies it has lost the northern city, which would be the fourth provincial capital to be largely overrun by Taliban fighters in the last week. Interior Ministry Spokesman Mirwais Stanekzai said that Afghan security forces continue to fight and have already re-taken some areas from the Taliban, without elaborating.
The Taliban has long considered the city a sought-after prize. It seized Kunduz, at the heart of a major agricultural region near Tajikistan, for around two weeks in 2015 before withdrawing in the face of a NATO-backed Afghan offensive. The insurgents pushed back into the city centre a year later, briefly raising their flag before gradually being driven out again.
Also Sunday, the Taliban forces overran Taleqan, the capital of Takhar province which lies next to Kunduz, two Afghan lawmakers said. Takhar, a city of some 200,000, has particular significance for the anti-Taliban northern alliance fighters who joined the US-led coalition to oust the religious militia in 2001.
In Washington, senior officials from the White House National Security Council, State Department and Defense Department were in close contact with US embassy officials in Kabul assessing the broader impact of the fall of Kunduz, according to a senior administration official.
On Sunday, a former US envoy to Kabul said Afghanistan is likely to slide into a prolonged civil war with US ground forces set to leave by the end of the month.
Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan during the Obama administration, said he didn’t foresee any chance that US troops would return once they exit.
“President Biden has made that clear â€" we’re going out and staying out,†Crocker said on ABC’s This Week.
Biden’s decisions mean he “is now taking complete ownership†of former President Donald Trump’s policies for Afghanistan, Crocker said.
AP, Bloomberg
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