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Taliban launch major attack on Afghan city of Kunduz
Source: Associated Press
Taliban launch major attack on Afghan city of Kunduz
By RAHIM FAIEZ
August 31, 2019
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban launched a large-scale attack on Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s main cities, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 75 others, government officials said Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the United States on ending America’s longest war.
The militants, who have demanded that all foreign forces leave Afghanistan, now control or hold sway over roughly half of the country and are at their strongest since their 2001 defeat by a U.S.-led invasion. Such attacks are seen as strengthening their negotiating position.
The U.S. envoy in the talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in a Twitter post that he raised the Kunduz attack with the Taliban and told them “violence like this must stop.” He is expected to visit Kabul on Sunday to brief the Afghan government.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the main intersection in Kunduz after hours of efforts by Afghan security forces to push the militants into the city’s outskirts, provincial council member Ghulam Rabani Rabani told The Associated Press. The blast killed 10 people and wounded five others, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing, which occurred after the defense and interior ministers visited Kunduz and asserted that Afghan forces had repelled the attackers. The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, also visited the city, Khalilzad said.
-snip-
By RAHIM FAIEZ
August 31, 2019
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban launched a large-scale attack on Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s main cities, killing at least 15 people and wounding more than 75 others, government officials said Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the United States on ending America’s longest war.
The militants, who have demanded that all foreign forces leave Afghanistan, now control or hold sway over roughly half of the country and are at their strongest since their 2001 defeat by a U.S.-led invasion. Such attacks are seen as strengthening their negotiating position.
The U.S. envoy in the talks, Zalmay Khalilzad, said in a Twitter post that he raised the Kunduz attack with the Taliban and told them “violence like this must stop.” He is expected to visit Kabul on Sunday to brief the Afghan government.
A suicide bomber detonated his explosives at the main intersection in Kunduz after hours of efforts by Afghan security forces to push the militants into the city’s outskirts, provincial council member Ghulam Rabani Rabani told The Associated Press. The blast killed 10 people and wounded five others, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said.
The Taliban quickly claimed responsibility for the bombing, which occurred after the defense and interior ministers visited Kunduz and asserted that Afghan forces had repelled the attackers. The commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Scott Miller, also visited the city, Khalilzad said.
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/7235462b429747c3978104b35d3fa2d1