Military Fort Clip Art Building With Flag Clip Art Map Legend
U.S. launches airstrike on Kunduz in northern Afghanistan, the twenty-four hour period after a Taliban assault on the key city
The potential autumn of Kunduz would be a huge setback for Aghan President Ashraf Ghani as he marks his get-go twelvemonth in office
KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. military machine carried out an airstrike Tuesday on the key northern Afghan urban center of Kunduz, a day after Taliban insurgents drove out security forces in a potential major accident to the Western-backed government.
Meanwhile, Sarwar Hussaini, a provincial police spokesman, told the Associated Printing that Afghan forces have launched a multi-pronged operation effectually the city seeking to retake it.
The U.S. air attack was made "in order to eliminate a threat to the force," according to U.S. Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for the U.S. and NATO missions in Afghanistan.
The U.South. military machine still has ix,800 troops in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, simply it was unclear Monday whether whatever American personnel were stationed near the fighting in Kunduz, nearly 150 miles north of Kabul.
The potential fall of Kunduz would be a huge setback for Aghan President Ashraf Ghani every bit he marks his first year in office.
Kunduz would give Taliban insurgents a critical base beyond their traditional strongholds in Afghanistan's s. Afghan regime leaders and the U.S.-led coalition hither view the battle for Kunduz as a key examination of the Afghan security forces in their continuing fight with the Taliban.
The Taliban assault began shortly before dawn Monday when hundreds of Taliban fighters advanced into the city from four directions.
Although Afghan security units were backed by helicopter gunships, the Taliban took over a 200-bed hospital and overran the local prison, freeing hundreds of prisoners. From at that place, they seized the function of the governor, who was not in the city at the fourth dimension.
The militant group posted triumphant pictures to Twitter showing Taliban fighters hoisting their white-and-black flag throughout the city.
Kunduz, a hub for the country's once relatively stable grain-growing region, would hand the Taliban one of the linchpins of Transitional islamic state of afghanistan'due south economy. It as well was the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan in Nov 2001, when the grouping's grip on the country collapsed in the face up of opposition fighters and U.S. airstrikes.
If Taliban fighters succeed in keeping control of Kunduz, it would be the first time in 14 years that they have seized and held a city.
On a broader level, the assail displays the Taliban's battleground ability and coordination even as the radical Islamist insurgency faces internal discord following the acknowledgment in the summer of the decease of its longtime leader, Mohammad Omar.
The military spokesman Tribus said Monday that the American-organized coalition has non conducted whatever recent airstrikes in Kunduz, but that it was providing intelligence and surveillance support to the Afghan army.
Coalition forces "train, propose and help" the Afghan military machine, but Tribus declined to hash out specifics of the mission, citing concerns about operational security.
In Washington, a U.Due south. defense force official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said officials at the Pentagon believe that, based on previous Taliban assaults on population centers, Afghan forces volition probably be able to prevail.
The United states of america can behave airstrikes just if Afghan forces are judged to be "in extremis," or facing a disquisitional threat from militant forces, the defence force official said, adding: "I wouldn't dominion out there beingness some sort of extremis situation."
Taliban fighters accept taken all the major government buildings in Kunduz, including the police and intelligence headquarters, and set burn down to some of them, said Amruddin Wali, a fellow member of the provincial council.
"This volition have a lot of impact on morale on all sides," said Atiqullah Amarkhail, a retired Afghan full general and military analyst. "Government forces may lose morale, while opposition forces' morale will be boosted equally they can at present say they tin can capture cities."
But he noted that Taliban gains do not necessarily foreshadow "the autumn of the unabridged north or the fall of the government."
Over the summer, the Taliban was able to steadily expand its attain across the country. Most major population centers, including Kabul, remain firmly under the command of government forces but nevertheless vulnerable to terrorist attacks. Across large swaths of rural Afghanistan, withal, the Taliban has besides been seizing strategic targets that grade the backbone of the Afghan economy.
Hafizullah Benish, the agriculture manager for Badghis province, said in an interview over this past weekend that the Taliban now controls much of Afghanistan's $30-million pistachio ingather in the northwestern part of the land.
Taliban gains in Helmand province in the south forced the evacuation of British engineers from a hydropower project this calendar month, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Dominic Medley, spokesman for the Un Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, said Monday that all U.Northward. staffers were evacuated from the Kunduz area as security deteriorated.
The Taliban fighters were exterior Kunduz all summer. In June, the Taliban briefly gained control of two of the city's six districts. Within days, yet, Afghan security officials had driven them out once more.
Mon's attack may have been timed to coincide with the start anniversary of Transitional islamic state of afghanistan'south new national unity government.
This is a major embarrassment to this government
On Sept. 29, 2014, afterward a months-long stalemate over election results, Ashraf Ghani was sworn in to replace quondam president Hamid Karzai. The second-place finisher in that ballot, Abdullah Abdullah, was named to a new position of primary executive officer.
Ghani and Abdullah accept struggled to oversee an Afghan armed services that appeared surprised by the ferocity of Taliban attacks this summer.
This year'southward fighting flavor was marked by clashes not simply in historical Taliban strongholds in the southern part of the country merely also in northern areas that had previously been relatively secure.
The insurgency has been joined by thousands of fighters who have been driven from neighboring Pakistan because of the ongoing Pakistani military operation in that land's tribal belt.
Faisal Sami, an Afghan senator from Kunduz, said he and other local officials had grown increasingly worried in recent months that Ghani's government did non have a serious plan for keeping the city condom.
"This is a major embarrassment to this government," Sami said.
In contempo weeks, there were as well growing calls for Ghani to supervene upon the governor of Kunduz province, Omar Safi, who was away on Monday.
"The main reason for the deterioration of the security situation and the Taliban's gains is bad direction of the affairs by the governor and lack of attention from the central government," said Mohammad Yousuf Ayoubi, the chief of Kunduz's provincial council.
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