“Mullah (Akhtar) Mansour directed his commanders in northern Afghanistan to take care of the local community by winning their hearts and minds through good behavior and self respect instead of bullets,” he said, referring to the Taliban’s new leader. More than 100 Taliban fighters were among the 600 prisoners who escaped during the jail attack, National Directorate of Security chief Rahmatullah Nabil told reporters on Tuesday.Ī senior commander in the hardline Islamist movement, which imposed strict Islamic law over Afghanistan during its five-year rule, said fighters had been ordered to treat locals well. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said one reason for the assault on Kunduz was to prove the group was united, after the appointment of a new leader in July angered many key figures.ĬASUALTIES UNKNOWN Earlier in the day, the government said its forces had regained the Kunduz city prison and provincial police headquarters, which were overrun on Monday night, but the Taliban quickly refuted the claim. Several small groups have broken away from the Taliban to follow Islamic State, which security experts fear will seek to exploit any divisions in the dominant Afghan militant movement. An official said four security personnel also died. It was the first time a provincial capital had fallen to the Taliban since the hardline Islamist movement was toppled from power in 2001 in the U.S.-led military campaign.įurther afield, and independent of the action around Kunduz, fighting broke out in Nangarhar province bordering Pakistan.Īt least 30 insurgents claiming loyalty to Islamic State were killed when militants attacked police checkpoints in Achin district, said Nangarhar police spokesman Hazrat Hussain Mashriqiwal. military carrying out its first air strike in support of government troops since Kunduz fell.
The evening Taliban advance came despite the U.S. We assure you that they haven’t entered the airport,” Danishy added. “Now Afghan forces have started a counter-attack near the airport. “They may join us tonight.”īeleaguered security forces in Kunduz had been banking on support from other provinces, but in a well-coordinated operation, the Taliban have disrupted some supply routes. “There are no reinforcements yet in Kunduz, as the Taliban have destroyed parts of the Baghlan-Kunduz highway,” said Abdullah Danishy, a deputy governor of Kunduz. Heavy fighting just meters from the airport, where police and soldiers had retreated on Monday, suggested the Taliban were not going to be easily dislodged. Afghan policemen prepare themselves near a frontline during a battle with the Taliban in Kunduz city, northern Afghanistan, September 29, 2015.
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