This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/world/asia/taliban-kunduz-afghanistan.html

The article has changed 5 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 1 Version 2
Taliban Gain Momentum in Afghanistan’s North as Fight for Kunduz Continues U.S. Strikes Positions in Afghanistan as Taliban Gain Momentum
(about 4 hours later)
KABUL, Afghanistan — As the Taliban and government forces fought on for control of the northern Afghan city of Kunduz on Friday, offensives by the insurgents in several nearby provinces gained momentum. KABUL, Afghanistan — In a clear sign of concern over the Taliban’s momentum in northeast Afghanistan, the American military conducted two airstrikes of Taliban positions in a remote corner of the country on Friday afternoon as Taliban fighters, driving captured Rangers and Humvees, quickly took over a pair of district centers.
The Taliban’s latest push on Friday occurred in the remote and mountainous region of Badakhshan, east of Kunduz. On Thursday night, the Taliban captured the district center, and on Friday morning, they were said to be driving in captured Humvees and Ford Ranger trucks toward Baharak, a crucial town just over 25 miles from the capital of Badakhshan, Faizabad. Ordinarily, a Taliban offensive in isolated Badakhshan Province might cause few reverberations in the capital, Kabul, and would most likely not set off an American military response.
In two other northern provinces, Takhar and Baghlan, the insurgents have also made substantial gains in recent days. That raises questions about whether the Afghan security forces, already struggling to respond to the Taliban’s capture of Kunduz at the beginning of the week, would be able to contain emboldened insurgent forces across Afghanistan’s northeast. But this week, the Taliban captured Kunduz, a city of 300,000 people, in its largest victory in more than a decade.
As recently as last week, the Taliban and the Afghan security forces appeared to be locked in a stalemate of sorts, at the conclusion of a bloody fighting season that had led to a heavy death toll for Afghan soldiers and police officers. Clearly emboldened, the Taliban have carried out smaller-scale offensives in a number of provinces across the north, including in Badakhshan, a sparsely populated expanse of rival warlords and isolated villages. Since Thursday, a Taliban force has captured two district centers in quick succession, provoking widespread concern in the provincial capital, Faizabad, that the Taliban were headed their way.
But the Taliban broke the stalemate early Monday, when hundreds of their fighters marched into Kunduz, a city of 300,000 people not far from the border with Tajikistan. Most of the city’s defenders quickly retreated or disappeared in a defeat that the Afghan government has since struggled to explain. Beyond that, residents and officials in Baharak, the latest district center to fall, said that more than 1,000 members of the Afghan security forces who had gathered on Friday morning had retreated as the Taliban attacked and seized the area. At 5:45 p.m., the American military conducted airstrikes on both the district of Baharak and its neighboring district, an American military spokeswoman said.
The extent of Taliban gains across the country’s north became even more apparent in the succeeding days as government reinforcements bound for Kunduz struggled to break through Taliban ambushes along key roads, sapping the Afghan military’s ability to mount a large-scale counterattack. Residents of Baharak interviewed by phone said that the Taliban’s shadow governor in Badakhshan had been killed in one of the strikes, but that could not be confirmed and such reports often turn out to be wrong.
By Wednesday night, Afghan security forces had fought their way into Kunduz, but by Friday they had regained control over little of the city. The fighting intensified on Thursday afternoon, with reports of mortar shells and machine-gun fire piercing homes. In two other northern provinces, Takhar and Baghlan, the insurgents also made substantial gains in recent days. Those losses raise the question of whether the Afghan security forces, already struggling to respond to the Taliban’s capture of Kunduz at the beginning of the week, would be able to contain emboldened insurgent forces across northeast Afghanistan.
The nonprofit organization Doctors Without Borders, which runs the main trauma hospital in the city, had treated 345 people, including 59 children, since Monday morning, according to figures provided by the organization at midday Friday. As recently as last week, the Taliban and the Afghan security forces appeared to be locked in a stalemate at the conclusion of a bloody fighting season that had led to a heavy death toll for Afghan soldiers and police officers.
The number of dead remained unknown. Residents had reported seeing bodies lying in the streets. At the Doctors Without Borders hospital, at least 37 people had died of their wounds by the time they were brought there. But the Taliban broke the stalemate early Monday with the capture of Kunduz. Most of the city’s defenders quickly retreated or disappeared in a defeat that the Afghan government has since struggled to explain.
The hospital was running short of supplies, including blood, because the road to Kunduz from Kabul had been blocked by insurgents in at least two points. Trucks carrying medical supplies left Kabul on Tuesday, but by Friday they still had not been able to reach Kunduz. In a sign of declining confidence in the government, several powerful political leaders and military commanders, some veterans of the fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, met in Kabul on Friday to discuss how to respond to Kunduz’s fall and the Taliban’s advances across the northeast.
The extent of Taliban gains across the north became more apparent in the days after the fall of Kunduz, as government reinforcements struggled to break through Taliban ambushes along crucial roads, sapping the Afghan military’s ability to mount a large-scale counterattack.
By Wednesday night, Afghan security forces had fought their way into Kunduz, but by Friday the Taliban still held parts of the city, including its central square, residents said. The fighting persisted in a number of neighborhoods, with reports of close-quarters fighting in which Taliban fighters were attacking Afghan troops in Humvees with rocket-propelled grenades and a machine gun mounted on a motorcycle. By Friday, residents reached by telephone reported a series of airstrikes’ bombarding the city.
An American military spokeswoman confirmed that there were three American airstrikes on the city’s outskirts over the course of the day.
Doctors Without Borders, which runs the main trauma hospital in the city, said it had treated 345 people, including 59 children, since Monday morning.
The number of dead remained unknown. Residents reported seeing bodies in the streets. At the Doctors Without Borders hospital, at least 37 people had died of their wounds by the time they were brought there.
The hospital was running short of supplies, including blood, because the road to Kunduz from Kabul had been blocked by insurgents at at least two points. Trucks carrying medical supplies left Kabul on Tuesday, but by Friday they still had not been able to reach Kunduz.
The International Committee of the Red Cross said that emergency medical supplies were ready to be flown in from Kabul as soon as security at the Kunduz airport improved.The International Committee of the Red Cross said that emergency medical supplies were ready to be flown in from Kabul as soon as security at the Kunduz airport improved.
The airport, about five miles south of the city, has stayed in government hands and has been the staging ground for Afghan military forces fighting to retake the city. By Friday morning, the Afghan police special forces, backed by Western military advisers, were skirmishing with Taliban forces at the edge of the city, residents said. In eastern Afghanistan, on Friday morning shortly after midnight, an Air Force C-130J transport plane crashed, although the American military said it did not appear to be the result of Taliban fire. The dead included six crew members, who were American armed forces personnel; five civilian contractors working for the American-led military mission in Afghanistan; and three Afghans who were on the ground.
American involvement in the fight for Kunduz appears to have been relatively limited. Since Tuesday, there have been eight American airstrikes in the area, a military spokesman said. Some of those were to defend the airport, which was in danger of being overrun on Tuesday night. Another destroyed a tank that the Taliban had captured. The two most recent airstrikes occurred Thursday afternoon on the outskirts of Kunduz. “With high confidence, it does not appear at this time that enemy fire was involved in the aircraft crash,” said Maj. Tony M. Wickman, an Air Force spokesman in Afghanistan.
American Special Forces on the ground were also involved in a firefight in the city on Thursday, according to a statement provided by the military. The cause of the accident was under investigation. The crash occurred as the four-propeller transport aircraft, assigned to the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, was taking off from the American base in Jalalabad.
In eastern Afghanistan, shortly after midnight on Friday morning, an Air Force C-130J transport plane crashed. The dead included six crew members, who were American armed forces personnel; five civilian contractors working for the American-led military mission in Afghanistan; and three Afghans who were on the ground. The fighting in Kunduz has led to an exodus of residents, not only from that city, but also from neighboring provinces, including Takhar and Baghlan, where the Taliban have taken territory over the past week.
“With high confidence, it does not appear at this time that enemy fire was involved in the aircraft crash,” said Major Tony M. Wickman, an Air Force spokesman in Afghanistan. The cause of the accident was under investigation. By Friday afternoon, a state of anxiety had settled over many residents in the picturesque capital of northeastern Badakhshan, nestled in a valley.
The crash occurred as the four-propeller transport aircraft, assigned to the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, was taking off from the American base in Jalalabad. “I am afraid of Taliban and their brutality,” one resident said as he described his plan to fly out of Faizabad with his family on the next plane. “I am a moderate Afghan whose daughter and two boys are studying in schools,” he explained.
He worried that even if local Taliban fighters left him alone, the influx of foreign fighters over the past year or two might kill him and marry off his daughter. He worried that other residents of the city might inform on him to any invading Taliban.
“In fact, I am even afraid of my neighbors who know that I am a teacher who supports democracy,” he said.