Taliban militants have launched a co-ordinated attack on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, officials say.<\/p>\n
The militants attacked from four sides of the city in the middle of the night.<\/p>\n
Mahmood Danish, spokesman for the provincial governor, said Afghan forces had repelled the attack.<\/p>\n
The attack began in the early hours at the southern and eastern approaches to the provincial capital where the militants were engaged in battles with government forces, he said.<\/p>\n
Two Afghan army helicopters were flying over the city, which was deserted, with streets empty and shops closed.<\/p>\n
Almost exactly a year ago, the Taliban briefly overran Kunduz, making it the first urban center to fall to the group since the collapse of their regime in 2001.<\/p>\n
Kunduz was briefly captured by the Taliban last September – the first time the insurgents had taken a major city – but government forces, backed by Nato, recaptured it within days.<\/p>\n
In southern Helmand province, militants have also taken a strategically important district to the south of Lashkar Gah, killing the local police chief, officials say.<\/p>\n
A number of other police casualties were also reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Taliban militants have launched a co-ordinated attack on the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, officials say. The militants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1773,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[318],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-2"],"yoast_head":"\n