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![Government forces have recaptured some of Kunduz but many Taliban have hunkered down in pockets throughout the city [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/247569745_8-e1443799638706.jpg)
Government forces have recaptured some of Kunduz but many Taliban have hunkered down in pockets throughout the city [Xinhua]
Afghanistan military forces, backed by US aerial bombardment, have for three days fought to recapture the strategic city near the border with Tajikistan.
By Friday, the military had regained many parts of the city, but several sections remained in Taliban hands.
The Taliban’s capture of Kunduz is considered the most significant setback for the government in Kabul and its international allies since the Islamist group was routed in 2001.
Some analysts have compared the fall of Kunduz, which was heavily fortified with soldiers who outmanned the Taliban militia, to the fall of Mosul in Iraq, where thousands of soldiers retreated and abandoned the city to the Islamic State.
The Taliban’s new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, who succeeded the late Mullah Omar, said that the capture of Kunduz was a “symbolic victory” designed to prove that the group were still strong and could deliver a punishing blow to the government in Kabul.
Meanwhile, east of Kunduz and also near the Tajikistan border, Taliban forces overran a number of checkpoints and captured the town of Warduj in Badakhshan province.
On Friday they were reported massing troops to assault the provincial capital of Baharak.
The Taliban have also launched major offensives in the neighbouring northern provinces of Takhar and Baghlan.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
