Afghan commandos have repelled a Taliban attack on Kunduz after the terrorists briefly took control of the northern city’s center.
“Government controls Kunduz City and Afghan security forces are in control of the main square with additional troops coming,” said NATO forces stationed in Afghanistan on Monday.
Afghan special forces and government helicopters were brought in earlier in the day to back up local forces who were battling the militants.
“The city center is now in our hands and not in their hands. We are launching an attack to clean up the area,” said Kunduz police chief Kassim Jangal Bagh.
Pentagon spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis also noted that the militant attack had been repelled, adding that the US had carried out several airstrikes in support of Afghan forces.
“The situation there remains fluid, we are continuing to watch it closely and to work with our Afghan partners,” he said.
In the early hours of Monday morning, Taliban militants reached the center of the Kunduz following fierce clashes with government forces.
Over the past few months, Afghan security forces have focused on foiling Taliban attacks in Helmand and Kunduz.
On September 28 last year, the Taliban militant group overran Kunduz in a lightning advance. The city was the only provincial capital to have fallen into their hands since the 2001 US-led invasion.
They remained in full control of the city for two days and eventually announced they were withdrawing from its outskirts on October 15.
The militant group lost its grip over Afghanistan in the US-led military invasion, but security has not been delivered to the country despite the presence of foreign boots on Afghan soil.
In July, UN monitors tallied 1,601 civilian deaths and 3,565 injuries in Afghanistan in the first half of 2016. The records, it said, showed an unprecedented rise in civilian casualties.
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