Fighting flares as Taliban advance towards Kunduz

[Insight]

Fighting flares as Taliban advance towards Kunduz

AFP — Published Apr 29, 2015 06:33am












KUNDUZ: Intense fighting flared in northern Afghanistan as security forces battled Taliban insurgents advancing on Tuesday on a major provincial capital, officials said, with terrified residents fearing the fall of the besieged city.
Hundreds of militants closed in on Kunduz city after attacking outlying police and army checkposts on Friday, just hours after the Taliban launched their annual spring offensive.
The battles are raging as close as six kilometres north of Kunduz city in Imam Sahib district and nearby villages in the east and south, officials said.
“The Taliban have surrounded the district and if reinforcements don’t arrive... the district will fall to Taliban,” Imamuddin Quraishi, the district governor of Imam Sahib, said.
“They are attacking us from three directions. We don’t have enough forces to contain them,” he added.
The streets of Kunduz city were deserted, with shops closed and local administration officials deserting government buildings, residents said as fears of a Taliban takeover grew.
“We are really worried that the city could slip into the hands of the Taliban... and all the gains over the last 13 years will be lost,” Ahmad Luqman 35, a shopkeeper in the city, said.
“We don’t want to go back to the civil war. “The fall of a provincial capital would be a major setback for the Afghan government, which has been fighting a resilient Taliban insurgency since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
Quraishi said the provincial government had asked Nato for air support but the appeal had been rejected on the grounds that it may cause civilian casualties.
General John Campbell, the commander of Nato-led international forces in Afghanistan, met President Ashraf Ghani on Monday to discuss the situation in Kunduz before Ghani left for a three-day trip to India.
“We can confirm that Campbell met President Ghani to discuss Kunduz,” Christopher Belcher, a spokesman for international coalition forces, said without elaborating.
Police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Hussaini confirmed that “intense fighting was raging” near Kunduz city, adding that Afghan reinforcements were being called in to stop the advancing militants.
Local residents said the Taliban had blown up bridges linking districts to the provincial capital in a bid to stop the reinforcements.
There were no immediate reports of any civilian or military casualties, but in a statement the interior ministry said 27 militants including a Taliban commander were killed on Monday.
The Taliban denied the deaths and added that the insurgents were advancing towards Kunduz city.
This year’s Taliban offensive marks the first fighting season in which Afghan forces will battle the insurgents without the full support of US-led foreign combat troops.
Nato’s combat mission formally ended in December but a small follow-up foreign force has stayed on to train and support local security personnel.
Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2015


http://www.dawn.com/news/1178794/fig...towards-kunduz

[Insight]

Taliban touts success in Kunduz offensive

By Bill Roggio | May 1, 2015 | billroggio@longwarjournal.org | @billroggio

The Afghan Taliban is trumpeting its recent success in the northern province of Kunduz as security forces struggle to drive back the jihadist group from the provincial capital. The Taliban released a video today titled “Kunduz and Renewed Resolve” that shows its fighters in control of Afghan security forces’ outposts, captured security personnel, and vehicles and weapons seized during the fighting. The title of the video is a play on the the name of the Taliban’s newly-launched spring offensive, which is called Azm and means resolve or determination. [See LWJ report, Afghan Taliban announces new ‘spring operations’.]
The five minute and thirty-seven second long video was produced by Al Emarah Studio, which is “part of the Multimedia Branch of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s Cultural Commission,” the Taliban stated on its website, Voice of Jihad. The video highlights “the recent victories, conquests and war booty attained by Mujahideen in the initial days of annual spring campaign dubbed ‘Azm’ (Resolve/Determination).”
Taliban fighters are shown patrolling in the Imam Sahib district, which is said to be under the group’s control. Taliban fighters are also videotaped inside and outside of several military and police outposts that were captured during the recent fighting.
The Taliban also displayed several US-supplied Humvees used by the Afghan Army and Ford 150 pickup trucks used by the Afghan police that were taken during the fighting. Also shown were captured assault rifles, machine guns, and an assortment of ammunition.
Additionally, the Taliban briefly showed at least 10 Afghan security personnel who were captured. Days after the fighting began in Kunduz, the jihadist group said that it had captured 55 security personnel, most of whom were Arbakis, or members of the tribal police.
The Taliban launched its offensive in the districts of Imam Sahib, Aliabad, and Qala-i-Zal as well as other areas of Kunduz late last week. The jihadist group is said to have advanced to within miles of the provincial capital of Kunduz city. After the Taliban offensive was launched, the head of the provincial council estimated that more than 65 percent of the province was under Taliban control. [See LWJ report, Taliban launch offensive in northern Afghan province.]
The Afghan military is said to have moved forces into Kunduz to counter the Taliban push but, according to a report in RFE/RL, security forces have been unsuccessful in dislodging the jihadist group from the Gor Tepa area in Kunduz city and other districts which fell. The governor of Kunduz told RFE/RL that Afghan forces faced an uphill battle against the Taliban without the support of US troops.
The US and NATO end its combat mission in Afghanistan in December 2014 and the limited number of forces have shifted to an advise and support role. Less than 10,000 US troops and several thousand NATO personnel remain in Afghanistan. As the US withdrew the bulk of its forces last year, the Taliban stepped up operations in southern, western, and eastern Afghanistan and have taken control of several districts and currently contests others throughout the country.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2015/05/taliban-touts-success-in-kunduz-offensive.php