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2018-08-11 Afghanistan
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All Govt Centers 'Under ANDSF Control' In Ghazni City, at least 39 Talibs toes up
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[Tolo] The US forces in Afghanistan confirm that there were attacks on multiple government centers in Ghazni City on Thursday night.
“We can confirm that there were attacks last night on multiple government centers in Ghazni City, Ghazni province,” Lt. Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, told TOLOnews.
He said fighting has since ceased (at around 8am Kabul time).
The spokesman said the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces held their ground and maintain control of all government centers.
“US forces responded with close-air support (US attack helicopters) and conducted one strike (drone). In addition, US aircraft conducted a show of presence,” Mr. O’Donnell told TOLOnews.
Initial reports indicate minimal Afghan security force casualties, he said in a statement on Friday.
“This is yet another failed Taliban attempt to seize terrain, which will result in yet another eye-catching, but strategically inconsequential headline,” he said.
Taliban stormed Ghazni City – in the center of Afghanistan – 148 kilometers southwest of Kabul, at around 2am Kabul time on Friday. Taliban has said in a statement that the group stormed Ghazni City from different sides.
Ghazni police said Kabul-Ghazni Highway has been closed to traffic following heavy fighting between government forces and Taliban.
Hamidullah Nawrozi, member of Ghazni Provincial Council, told TOLOnews that "Ghazni city will fall to the Taliban if reinforcements were not sent".
Meanwhile, Ghazni Police Chief Farid Ahmad Mashal said the Ghazni City is under the control of government forces as he talked to TOLOnews at around 8:30am Kabul time. He rejected the claims that Taliban has entered the city. The police chief said clashes are ongoing in Khogyani, Khwaja Omari and Zanakhan areas on the outskirts of Ghazni City.
Recently, insecurity has increased in Ghazni province. The increasing insecurity has resulted in a decision by the Independent Election Commission to delay the upcoming parliamentary election in the province.
Taliban Blocks Kabul-Kandahar Highway Following Ghazni Attack
[Tolo] Taliban insurgents on Friday blocked Kabul-Kandahar Highway that connects Afghanistan’s capital Kabul to the southern city of Kandahar after the group launched an overnight attack on Ghazni City.
Taliban’s attack on Ghazni, about 180 kilometers southwest of Kabul, is the latest series of attacks by the resurgent group on provincial centers.
Afghan security officials in Maidan Wardak province said Taliban launched an attack on Salar area at midnight on Thursday and then engaged in a fierce battle with government forces in the area.
Passengers who stranded on the strategically important high said Taliban fighters have visible presence in some parts of Kabul-Kandahar Highway.
“They (Taliban) targeted the vehicles. Landmines were planted, bridges were destroyed, they also opened fire on us. Many drivers had been hit,” said Abdulhai, a driver.
“We stranded for two hours in Sayed Abad district. Clashws were ongoing in Chashm-e-Salar, so we returned,” said Mohammad Zia, a driver.
The US army in Afghanistan however has said that a series of air strikes were carried out on the Taliban in the area and that the group’s attempt to seize Ghazni City has failed.
“We can confirm that there were attacks last night on multiple government centers in Ghazni City, Ghazni province,” Lt. Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, a spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, told TOLOnews.
TOLOnews reporter Gulabuddin Ghubar who visited Maidan Wardak said government forces were trying to send reinforcements to the area to repel further advance of the group.
Soldiers describes the warfronts
“We checked the route and defused the mines. We also escorted the convoy towards Durani bazar and took the martyrs there,” said Mohammad Sediq, a soldier.
“We walked through Dasht-e-Top area. Taliban militants are fighting on multiple fronts. They cannot engage in direct battles,” said Emal Ibrahimi, a soldier.
“People have suffered from this war. The road is blocked. People are stranded on both sides,” said Sharifullah Hotak, member of Maidan Wardak Provincial Council.
In pictures and latest on coordinated Taliban attack on Ghazni city
| Photos can be seen at the link. |
[KhaamaPress] The Ministry of Interior (MoI) officials are saying that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) have full grip over the security of Ghazni city, the provincial capital of Ghazni province.
MoI deputy spokesman Nursrat Rahimi told reporters in Kabul that the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces are in full lead of the security of Ghazni city.
He said the Taliban militants have sustained heavy casualties during the attack on Ghazni city and in clashes with the security forces but added that no specific information is available regarding the exact toll.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defense Gen. Mohammad Radmanish said the attack was carried out jointly by the militants from Maidan Wardak, Paktia, and Zabul provinces.
Provincial security Chief Farid Ahmad Mashal says the dead bodies of at least 39 militants are left in the eastern parts of the city.
Provincial public health directorate officials had earlier said the bodies of at least 16 people including two civilians have been shifted to the hospital along with at least 30 others who have sustained injuries.
According to the officials, at least 26 security personnel are among those wounded during the clashes.
The provincial governor’s spokesman Mohammad Arif Noori had earlier said at least seven security personnel have sustained injuries during the attack.
Officials said Afghan special forces were also eing deployed to the southeastern city of Ghazni after the latest attempt by the Taliban to capture an urban centre, with the assault coming as pressure builds on the insurgents to enter peace talks.
At least one Afghan soldier has been killed and seven others wounded in the fighting, provincial governor spokesman Arif Noori said.
Civilian houses and army checkpoints have come under mortar attack and the bodies of dozens of Taliban fighters are in the streets, he added.
| Rudaw adds still more details. At some point the fog of war will clear, and we’ll have at least a better idea of how many people belonging to which groups were killed: |
Taliban fighters tried to overrun a provincial capital in Afghanistan early on Friday, hiding inside homes before slipping into city streets in the night to attack security forces and killing at least 14 policemen before being pushed back, officials said.
The overnight attack in the southeastern city of Ghazni, the capital of a province with the same name, also wounded at least 20 members of the security forces, said Baz Mohammad Hemat, the administrator of the Ghazni city hospital.
Another Taliban attack, this one on Thursday night in western Herat province, left six policemen dead in the district of Obe, according to the governor’s spokesman there, Gelani Farhad.
In Ghazni, the attack began around 2 a.m. with intense gunbattles raging and fires burning in several shops in the city’s residential areas, provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Mashal told The Associated Press.
After repulsing the daring assault, police conducted house-to-house searches for any remaining Taliban fighters. An investigation was also underway on how the insurgents had managed to infiltrate so deep into the city, barely 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Mashal said there were more than 100 other casualties but he could not give a breakdown of the dead and wounded. Most of the casualties were Taliban, he said.
Several bodies of dead Taliban fighters remained on the street after government forced pushed the insurgents from Ghazni, the police chief said. Bodies of 39 Taliban fighters were recovered from under a bridge on the southern edge of the city.
Airstrikes called in to quash the offensive also killed dozens of Taliban, Mashal said. Defense Ministry spokesman Mohammad Radmanish said the army had helped the police and that the city was brought under control of government forces.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed parts of Ghazni had been seized and scores of people killed.
By mid-morning, sporadic gunfire could still be heard in city, some residents said. There were still Taliban fighters who had hunkered down in elevated positions from which they were still shooting, the residents said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear for their safety.
The Taliban have so far not confirmed being behind the earlier attack in Herat in which at least six policemen were killed at a district checkpoint. 
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Posted by trailing wife 2018-08-11 00:00||
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