Afghan Taliban pushes into provincial capital

Militants repelled, government says

An Afghan policeman travels Thursday in Uruzgan province’s capital, Tirin Kot, which reportedly has been overrun by the Taliban.
An Afghan policeman travels Thursday in Uruzgan province’s capital, Tirin Kot, which reportedly has been overrun by the Taliban.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The Taliban pushed Thursday into the capital of Afghanistan's southern Uruzgan province, triggering fierce clashes and sending all government officials fleeing from the city, an Afghan official said.

The insurgents' surprise attack left authorities in control only of Tirin Kot's police headquarters, which the Taliban were besieging since the morning hours, according to provincial spokesman Doost Mohammad Nayab.

Nayab said that all checkpoints around the city have been overrun or destroyed and appealed to the government in Kabul for quick reinforcements. He did not provide a casualty toll but said he feared that the city soon will fall to the insurgents.

Hundreds of Taliban are involved in the assault, Nayab added, without giving any specifics.

However, within hours, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said the Taliban had been repelled from Tirin Kot. Mohammad Radmanish, the ministry's deputy spokesman, said the army, police and intelligence service headquarters in the city have all been secured.

Radmanish insisted that all strategic locations in Tirin Kot, a city with a population of about 72,000, are now under government control and that reinforcements are on the way to the Uruzgan provincial capital.

Air support has been called in and Afghan airstrikes have killed several Taliban fighters in Tirin Kot, he added. The Taliban did not immediately issue any statements to journalists about the attack on Tirin Kot.

Nayab later said Afghan and U.S. air forces were pounding the Taliban with airstrikes, forcing them to step back from the city. Afghan state TV reported from Tirin Kot that all shops, bakeries and pharmacies were closed and that the residents were fleeing.

One resident, shopkeeper Sultan Muhammad, said he fled and was making his way south to the city of Kandahar, the provincial capital of neighboring Kandahar province.

"We civilians are fed up with both the Taliban and the government. We don't care who is coming and who is going, we just want peace," he said over the phone. He said the Taliban had pushed inside Tirin Kot, where they are now "attacking government buildings inside the city."

Tirin Kot is the third Afghan provincial capital that has come under Taliban threat recently, along with the city of Kunduz in the north and Lashkar Gah in southern Helmand province.

The sudden insurgent thrust there is one more sign that the Taliban are moving to establish zones of control in numerous scattered regions, both within and beyond their traditional strongholds. Tirin Kot was protected by Dutch and Australian troops for years until the drastic reduction of NATO forces in 2014.

The uptick in Taliban attacks against Afghan security forces has prompted the United States to send additional troops to the southern Helmand province, where its capital, Lashkar Gah, is also under heavy pressure from the insurgents. The provincial council head Kareem Atal earlier said that roughly 80 percent of Helmand is already under Taliban control.

Since August, Taliban fighters have attacked Afghan security forces in northern Kunduz province, briefly taking control of a district headquarters. The militants also overran a district in northern Baghlan province and in eastern Paktia province. The Taliban also are believed to have captured much of Uruzgan province.

Afghan troops were reported to be weakening under the militant onslaught. Some had to abandon their posts for lack of ammunition, said Mohibullah Popal, a tribal chief and former police official there. Inadequate fighting supplies have led to so-called tactical withdrawals by Afghan forces in other recent clashes.

Bette Dam, a Dutch journalist who has reported extensively on Afghanistan's southern regions, said deepening local frustration over corruption and government infighting have weakened public support for the government in Uruzgan. She said some local anti-government gunmen had joined the Taliban offensive there.

"Uruzgan is now in a very problematic situation where the police and the [Afghan army] are more and more leaving their posts, not defending the government," she said.

"It is a victory for the Taliban," she added, "but it is much more a sign of how weak the government of Uruzgan is."

Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense says its security forces are waging operations in 15 provinces.

Information for this article was contributed by Mirwais Khan and Amir Shah of The Associated Press and by Sayed Salahuddin of The Washington Post.

A Section on 09/09/2016

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