US and allied special forces in Afghanistan battled insurgents besieging the airport outside the northern city of Kunduz that was captured by the Taliban this week, a coalition spokesman and Afghan official said yesterday.
It was the first report of on-the-ground clashes between Taliban militants and foreign troops supporting their Afghan allies during three days of sometimes heavy fighting for control of the strategic city of 300,000.
Kunduz is the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since the hardline Islamist movement was toppled from power in 2001.
The swift re-taking of the city promised by President Ashraf Ghani has failed to materialise, as Taliban fighters dig into positions around the city and mine roads to prevent reinforcements from reaching weary Afghan forces.
They have also placed large containers across streets to further limit people’s movement in and out of Kunduz, said Ahmad Sahil, a local television producer who was inside the city.
In another setback for the government, nearly 200 Afghan security personnel abandoned Bala Hissar hill, an outpost in Kunduz that overlooks the city’s main roads, after running out of ammunition and food, said an Afghan security official.
Troops fled the strategic position in pick-up trucks and Humvees. Dozens headed for shelter at Kunduz airport, where thousands of police and soldiers have already retreated in the last two days of fighting.
To the south, in neighbouring Baghlan province, a group of 800 Afghan troops on its way to reinforce Kunduz repelled a Taliban ambush and was waiting for bomb squads to clear the road into the city, said Afghan army officer Sayed Ahmad Mujahid.
Few details given about foreign troops’ engagement
They had only advanced about one kilometre during the day, he added.
Afghanistan’s intelligence agency said in a statement issued late on Tuesday that an air strike had killed Mullah Abdul Salam, the Taliban’s shadow governor for Kunduz province, and 15 others on the outskirts of the airport. It was not possible to verify the report independently, and the Taliban denied the claim, later releasing what they said was an audio statement from Salam recorded yesterday .
At least five US air strikes have targeted Taliban positions near the city since the fighting broke out on Monday.
Coalition special forces including US troops, while advising Afghan troops operating in the vicinity of the Kunduz airport, “encountered an insurgent threat” at about 1am yesterday, according to a statement from Nato. Coalition spokesman Col. Brian Tribus gave few details about the foreign troops’ engagement with insurgents while supporting Afghan forces overnight. He confirmed special forces fought the insurgents, but added: “This was done out of self-defence. When they encountered the threat, they defended themselves.”