Taliban militants capture district in northern Afghanistan: Official
Taliban militants have captured a district in Afghanistan's northern province of Sar-e-Pol following two days of heavy clashes with Afghan security forces, a local official says.
The militants managed to wrest control of the Kohistanat district of Sar-e Pol on Saturday evening, said Assadullah Khurram, a member of the provincial council.
“The insurgents had besieged the district center following coordinated attacks from four sides,” Khurram added.
He also said the Taliban, who had earlier closed the roads to Kohistanat, destroyed telecommunication towers in the district following its seizure.
Several requests had been sent to the central government for reinforcements and airstrikes on the militants before the fall of the district, but they were left unanswered, Khurram noted.
A security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said only two villages of the district have remained under the government control.
On September 28, Taliban militants overran Afghanistan’s northern city of Kunduz, but were later forced to withdraw from much of the city in the face of a government counterattack. Sporadic clashes continue as Afghan troops struggle to clear remaining pockets of the militants.
Kunduz is strategic as it is located on a crossroad that connects key regions of the country. It is also along the country’s border with Tajikistan and could offer the militants the opportunity to establish a base in the country’s north.
Afghanistan is gripped by insecurity nearly 14 years after the United States and its allies invaded the country in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror.
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