Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
by Boris Rozhin
Taliban militants broke into the center of Kunduz, the capital of the province of the same name and the 5th largest city in Afghanistan (located in the north of the country near the border with Tajikistan). The Taliban had already seized Kunduz in previous years, but the government, with the help of the Americans, drove the Taliban out of there.
The Taliban reached the near approaches to Kunduz on July 29-30, when they began to fly their flags in the suburbs and at the gates to the city. A week later, they went to storm the administrative center of Kunduz. The militants actively used the American Humvees captured earlier in the north of the country (up to several dozen).
Today, the headquarters of the provincial police were seized (huge trophies are declared - small arms, tons of ammunition, special equipment, cars, etc., etc.), the office of the national security department and the central prison, which held several hundred prisoners of the Taliban, including high-ranking field commanders.
All prisoners were released and partly joined the assault. The army says more than 80 Taliban fighters have been killed and injured in airstrikes in the Kunduz area, including the deputy shadow governor of Kunduz and his bodyguards.
Nevertheless, hotbeds of resistance by special forces and police forces remain in the city, including in the area of the police headquarters. The loss of Kunduz in the current realities will be a serious blow to the government of Ashraf Ghani.
The Kunduz airfield came under heavy mortar fire. Holding the airport is a critical task for the Afghan army, since this is the only way to quickly transfer reinforcements to the city and impose a struggle for the city on the Taliban.
Boris Rozhin is a Russian military journalist.
Via Fred:
[PUBLISH.TWITTER]
|
