Taliban launches 'massive' attack on Kunduz in northern Afghanistan

AKIPRESS.COM - The Taliban have launched a new attack on one of Afghanistan's largest cities, Kunduz, the government said on Saturday, even as the insurgent group continued negotiations with the US on ending America's longest war, The Guardian reports. The militants, who have demanded that all foreign forces leave the country, now control or hold sway over roughly half of the country and are at their strongest since their 2001 defeat by a US-led invasion.
Some 20,000 US and Nato forces remain in Afghanistan after formally ending their combat role in 2014. They continue to train and support Afghan forces fighting the Taliban and a local affiliate of the Islamic State group.
Presidential spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said Afghan security forces were repelling the attack in some parts of the city, a strategic crossroads with easy access to much of northern Afghanistan as well as the capital, Kabul, about 335 kilometres away.