US strike targets Taliban as Afghan troops mount Kunduz counterattack

The US military has launched an airstrike to aid Afghan government forces in a counteroffensive against Taliban fighters who on Monday captured large parts of Kunduz, a strategic provincial capital in the country’s north.
“The Taliban are being pushed back. In a few hours the city will be free from their hands,” said Dowlat Waziri, deputy spokesman for the defence ministry. He said the army had sent reinforcements from neighbouring Kabul and Balkh provinces, including special forces.
Security forces said they had cleared the area around the central prison, from where the Taliban released several hundred inmates, and the police headquarters.

Mohammad Omar “Pakhsaparan”, a commander of a unit of the Afghan local police, said the areas of Bala-e Sar, Imam Sahib and Gul Tepa were now cleared, but that large portions of the city was still under Taliban control.
Colonel Brian Tribus, a spokesman for the US and Nato missions in Afghanistan, said the airstrike early on Tuesday morning was conducted “in order to eliminate a threat to coalition and Afghan forces”, though there were no foreign troops left inside the city. He did not elaborate if more airstrikes would follow.
On Monday, as government officials and families who had the means to leave fled Kunduz, scores of civilians were caught in the crossfire.

Taliban capture key Afghan provincial capital Kunduz

As of noon on Tuesday (07.30am GMT), public hospitals in Kunduz had received 172 injured and 16 dead bodies, according to spokesman Wahidullah Mayar. In addition, Médecins Sans Frontières said their hospital in Kunduz had admitted more than 100 casualties, and was operating on full capacity.
“Our surgeons have been working non-stop to treat patients with gunshot wounds. We have added 18 extra beds to bring the total bed capacity to 110 in order to cope with the unprecedented level of admissions,” said Guilhem Molinie, MSF’s country representative.

Afghan army says it is preparing to retake Kunduz

The seizure of Kunduz happened almost exactly one year after President Ashraf Ghani came to power, and illustrates the government’s difficulties in reining in the insurgency in the wake of last years’ mass withdrawal of foreign combat troops.
The governor of Kunduz, Mohammad Omar Safi, who was not in town at the time of the attack, told the Wall Street Journal that he had been requesting support from the central government for months.
Kunduz is the first provincial capital in 14 years to effectively fall to the Taliban, and is possibly the militants’ biggest victory since they were ousted from power in 2001. Taliban fighters treated the invasion as a propaganda victory. In footage broadcast on social media, insurgents exclaimed: “We want to serve the people and they have to help us. We want to establish sharia law.”
The capture of Kunduz will also serve to boost morale among Taliban fighters still reeling from the news two months ago that the movement’s founder and leader, Mullah Omar, had passed away in 2013.
After years of costly involvement, most Nato troops pulled back from front lines in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, although a residual force of about 13,000 remains for training and counter-terrorism operations.