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Afghan forces try to flush out Taliban in Kunduz

02 October 2015 21:07 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Afghan forces were going from house to house hunting for remaining Taliban insurgents in Kunduz Friday, days after the stunning fall of the northern city as militant offensives gained momentum in neighbouring provinces, APA reports quoting AFP.

Officials pushed for control of the provincial capital, strewn with bodies and charred vehicles, while in the east of the country, a US military transport plane crashed killing 11 people including six US soldiers.

The Taliban claimed to have shot the C-130 Hercules down near Jalalabad but a US defense official strongly denied the claim, saying it was "obviously an aviation mishap".

The Taliban's offensive in Kunduz, their biggest tactical success since 2001, marks a blow for Afghanistan's Western-trained forces, who have largely been fighting on their own since the end of NATO's combat mission in December.

But as fighting spreads in neighbouring Badakhshan, Takhar and Baghlan provinces, concerns are mounting that the seizure of Kunduz was merely the opening gambit in a new, bolder strategy to tighten the insurgency's grip across northern Afghanistan.

Soldiers in Kunduz secured government offices and police headquarters Friday after days of fierce clashes with insurgents, clouded by confusing and contradictory claims by both sides over who was in control.

Clearance operations, slowed by Taliban booby traps and snipers in residential buildings, appeared to be making headway.

"Today our security forces are deployed all over Kunduz," provincial police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini told AFP.

"We are searching the lanes of the city and residential houses looking for Taliban militants... We will target and kill them."

Police chief Mohammad Jangalbagh said more than 300 insurgents including some Pakistanis and Chechens had so far been killed.

"The streets are largely empty, the shops are closed, and there is no fighting between the Taliban and government forces," Zabihullah, a Kunduz resident who goes by one name, told AFP.

Food was running short and there was no electricity, while some people wounded during the fighting were too afraid of Taliban snipers to leave their homes and go to hospital, he added.

Sounds of gunfire or explosions in the city had become more intermittent by Friday morning, Shahir, another resident who goes by one name, told AFP.

"We cannot move from our houses and walk in the streets because the remaining Taliban have taken positions in tall buildings, they are firing on civilians and military," he added.