KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents attacked police headquarters and other government buildings in Ghazni in central Afghanistan on Sunday, killing dozens of soldiers and police and threatening to seize control of the city, officials and residents said.

U.S. aircraft conducted at least four air strikes but details of the fighting were unclear as most of the city’s telecoms masts were destroyed in fighting over recent days.

A senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said around 80 members of the security forces, as well as an unknown number of civilians had been killed.

Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, Afghan army chief of staff, said the city was not under threat of collapse and heavy fighting was underway to push back the Taliban from the city limits.

“Strategic locations and centers in the city are under the control of Afghan forces and the Taliban are hiding inside people’s homes and shops and resisting,” Yaftali told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.

But lawmakers from Ghazni who managed to talk to some residents said the Taliban were in control of much of the city after launching an initial attack in the early hours of Friday.

“Only the governor’s office, police headquarters and intelligence agency’s compound are in the hands of the government and Taliban are pushing to take them,” said Chaman Shah Ehtemadi, a lawmaker from Ghazni.

The attack, the heaviest blow struck by the Taliban since they came close to overrunning the western city of Farah in May, dampened hopes of peace talks which had grown since a surprise three-day truce during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in June.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents had taken the district center of Khwajaumari, north of the city, and several areas in other districts of Ghazni province. Many members of the security forces had surrendered, he said.

Local officials have warned for months that Ghazni, a city on the main highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan’s south, was under threat, with the Taliban in control of most of the surrounding province.

Mohammad Rahim Hasanyar, a member of the provincial council, said heavy fighting was continuing in several areas of the city and Afghan forces were in defense mode.

“No one knows what the exact situation is because there is no communication service,” he said.

With the highway heavily mined to prevent reinforcements from arriving, residents were largely trapped inside but some who managed to escape across fields on the city’s periphery said many government buildings were ablaze.

“There was burning and fire and dead bodies everywhere in the city,” Abdul Wakil, a resident who escaped, told Reuters at a checkpoint into Kabul.

The Red Cross said on Twitter that it was watching the situation closely. It had supplied body bags to the provincial hospital and was ready to provide more assistance.

President Ashraf Ghani made no mention of the crisis during an extended speech on youth affairs on Sunday and with little coming out from the government, people were left to rely on alternative sources of information.

Short videos circulating on social media, purported to be from Ghazni, showed a number of heavily armed Taliban patrolling in the city with a large plume of smoke and flames coming out from the town.

“It is over and the city is taken,” said a man standing outside his home, with several Taliban insurgents nearby.

The videos could not be independently verified by Reuters but they generated heavy commentary by social media users that underlined the shock caused by the attack.

U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said sporadic clashes were occurring and American aircraft had conducted five strikes on Saturday and four more on Sunday.

“The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces continue to hold their ground and maintain control of all government centers,” Lt Col Martin O’Donnell, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman, said in an emailed statement.

The Taliban have not taken a major provincial center since they overran the northern city of Kunduz in 2015 and the assault on Ghazni was a major blow to the Western-backed government just weeks before parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 20. </s> GHAZNI, Afghanistan -- The Afghan government declared Saturday that there was no longer a cause for concern about the strategic southeastern city of Ghazni falling to the Taliban.

However, a reporter for The New York Times who entered the city Saturday morning found insurgents confidently in control at every intersection. At Sanayi High School, where the day before there had been a large Afghan police check post, now there were a half-dozen Taliban fighters armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and AK-47s.

"As a civilian your life is important to us, so you should go back to your village or home now," their leader, wearing a black turban, told the reporter. "We don't want to kill you, but we have orders not to allow civilians out in the city."

Both the government and the insurgents claimed to be in control. With cellphone towers destroyed, communications were sporadic and information from Ghazni was scarce.

A city of about 280,000, Ghazni is on the main highway between Kabul, the capital, and the country's second-largest city, Kandahar.

Taking Ghazni, even briefly, would be the Taliban's most important victory yet. While they had briefly overrun the small cities of Farah, earlier this year, and Kunduz twice, in 2015 and 2016, neither of those cities have the symbolic and military importance of Ghazni.

Taliban control of the city would not only cut off northern Afghanistan and the capital from the traditional Taliban homelands in the south, it would also prove a severe defeat for the U.S. and Afghan strategy of holding population centers rather than territory.

Afghans also revere Ghazni as a seat of ancient culture, once the capital of a vast empire that ruled modern-day India. Its many monuments and archaeological sites earned it a designation as the Asian capital of Islamic culture in 2013.

Residents fleeing the city described streets littered with the unrecovered bodies of policemen, insurgents and civilians a day after the Taliban staged a large-scale attack in an effort to overrun the strategic city. And they saw no sign of any government counterattack. Government radio and television was shut down and only Radio Shariat, a Taliban station, was broadcasting.

It was a picture completely at odds with what Afghan officials were saying in Kabul.

"Overall, the situation is under our control in Ghazni, and the problems are not that serious," Najib Danish, spokesman for the Ministry of Interior, said at a news conference. "The concern about the collapse of the province to the Taliban is gone now."

Danish confirmed that 25 Afghan security forces, as well as one Afghan journalist, had been killed in the fighting.

Along a 3-mile stretch of the city, there were four Taliban checkpoints, each with a commandeered car and a pair of motorcycles among four fighters, who appeared on their guard but unworried.

There was no sign of U.S. airstrikes or helicopters Saturday, as there had been the day before.

On the city's outskirts, families were streaming out of the city. A woman named Mina, a widow traveling with her five small children, said insurgents had come to her house the night before and set up a fighting position on her roof.

"You can stay downstairs if you want to -- or leave, it's OK -- but we are going to fight from your home against the police," she said the Taliban told her. She and her children carried only a small bag of clothing each and the children were barefoot. She said on the way she had counted at least 17 bodies in the street -- police, Taliban and civilians.

"I stopped counting because we were too scared," she said.

Taliban sources had little to say Saturday, other than claiming to have destroyed many checkpoints in the city. They said they were continuing to fight.

The Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, did claim in a Twitter post that the insurgents had "liberated" the city's prison, releasing everyone inside. He did not say how many prisoners were inside.

Afghan reinforcements traveling to Ghazni from Gardez, to the east, and from Kabul, to the north, encountered repeated ambushes, destroyed bridges and delays, according to Afghan officials. </s> related media assets (image or videos) available. Click to see the gallery.

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Taliban insurgents attacked police headquarters and other government buildings in Ghazni in central Afghanistan on Sunday and were threatening to seize control of the city, with the main highway now heavily mined, local lawmakers and residents said.

KABUL: Taliban insurgents attacked police headquarters and other government buildings in Ghazni in central Afghanistan on Sunday and were threatening to seize control of the city, with the main highway now heavily mined, local lawmakers and residents said.

U.S. aircraft conducted at least four air strikes but details of the fighting were unclear as most of the city's telecoms masts were destroyed in fighting over recent days.

But lawmakers from Ghazni who managed to talk to some residents said Taliban were in control of much of the city after launching an initial attack in the early hours of Friday.

"Only the governor's office, police headquarters and intelligence agency's compound are in the hands of the government and Taliban are pushing to take them," said Chaman Shah Ehtemadi, a lawmaker from Ghazni.

The attack on Ghazni, a strategic city on the main highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan's south, was the most serious blow to the government since the insurgents came close to overrunning the western city of Farah in May.

Mohammad Rahim Hasanyar, a member of the provincial council, said heavy fighting was continuing in several areas of the city and Afghan forces were in defence mode.

"No one knows what the exact situation is because there is no communication service," he said.

There was no confirmed word on casualties. Quoting a hospital official, Afghanistan's 1TV television reported more than 90 members of the security forces and 13 civilians had been killed, with more than 100 wounded. It said there had also been heavy Taliban casualties.

With the highway heavily mined to prevent reinforcements from arriving, residents were largely blocked inside but some who managed to escape across fields on the city's periphery said many government buildings were ablaze.

"There was burning and fire and dead bodies everywhere in the city," said Abdul Wakil, a local resident who escaped told Reuters at a checkpoint into Kabul.

A senior security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Special Forces units had been sent to push the Taliban back from around the city but many fighters were still inside the centre after going into hiding following their initial assault in the early hours of Friday.

The official said Afghan and U.S. aircraft had carried out strikes outside the city but many fighters were in residential areas, making it difficult for security forces to rely on air support.

U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said sporadic clashes were occurring and American aircraft had conducted five strikes on Saturday and four more on Sunday.

"The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces continue to hold their ground and maintain control of all government centres," Lt Col Martin O'Donnell, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman, said in an emailed statement.

The attack on Ghazni leaves the future of peace talks with the Taliban uncertain. The government had been considering a ceasefire over this month's Eid al Adha holiday to match a similar truce during June's Eid al Fitr holiday. </s> KABUL: Both Taliban and government forces claimed they were in control of the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni Saturday (Aug 11), after insurgents stormed the provincial capital, triggering fierce fighting.

Afghan officials said they were in control of Ghazni late Friday with authorities in Kabul saying security forces were conducting a clearance operation targeting Taliban fighters who had taken up positions in residential homes.

But information about who controlled the city was difficult to confirm with power and mobile services cut to the area after the Taliban destroyed a telecommunications tower, according to Ghazni MP Shah Gul Rezaye.

"The central government in Kabul said the situation in Ghazni was under their control, but we managed to contact officials in Ghazni who said that fighting was underway in areas surrounding Ghazni," said the parliamentarian.

Rezaye said additional reinforcements had been rushed to Ghazni late Friday, after US forces deployed attack helicopters and launched at least one drone strike to push back the Taliban fighters.

The Taliban, however, claimed victory saying their fighters were now in control of Ghazni after routing Afghan forces.

"Last night, our mujahideen have completely conquered a battalion in Ghazni, seizing weapons and ammunition and four pickup trucks," said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a message to journalists Saturday.

"Our mujahideen are protecting the city of Ghazni."

The insurgents frequently exaggerate their battlefield gains and downplay losses incurred during clashes.

Ghazni - less than two hours by road from Kabul - has been under increasing danger from massing Taliban fighters for months with reports suggesting insurgents had already infiltrated the city.

The attack, which began late Thursday, was the latest attempt by the Taliban to seize an urban centre and comes as pressure mounts on the insurgents to enter peace talks with the government to end the nearly 17-year-old war. </s> Afghan forces, Taliban battle for control of highways in Ghazni

KABUL: Heavily armed Taliban fighters destroyed bridges near the central city of Ghazni on Saturday, closing the main highway between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan, officials said.

Sporadic clashes erupted between Afghan soldiers and Taliban insurgents who were trying to gain control over parts of Ghazni province nearly two months after being pushed back from the city by US -backed Afghan forces, officials added.

Mohammad Arif Noori, the governor´s spokesman in Ghazni, said fighting was ongoing and the Afghan army had deployed helicopters to prevent the militants from entering the city centre.

“We are fully prepared to attack them.

This time the province will not fall into the hands of the Taliban,” Noori said.

Five militants were killed as they were planting bombs on three bridges on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, Noori added.

The attack on Ghazni was a show of strength for the Taliban, underscoring how volatile the security situation remains two weeks before the parliamentary elections.

Polling has already been called off in Ghazni province after the Taliban overran it in August and besieged the city for five days.

That confrontation killed 150 Afghan security forces and 95 civilians dead, as well as hundreds of Taliban fighters, said officials then.

President Ashraf Ghani´s Western-backed government pledged $20 million for relief and reconstruction of Ghazni after security forces defeated the Taliban fighters in that battle.

Afghan forces said on Saturday they were also fighting Taliban insurgents to retake a highway linking Ghazni and Paktia provinces.

The Taliban took control of the arterial road in August and had imposed a tolls on civilians using the highway.

Rohullah Khalil Ughlo, an Afghan army commander, said 22 Taliban insurgents were killed and 17 were wounded in clashes to secure the highway.

“The operation will end soon and the highway will be open for traffic.

People will not have to pay illegal taxes anymore,” said Ughlo.

Meanwhile residents of Qarabagh district, 55 km (35 miles) south of Ghazni city, said the militants had set up checkpoints and were preventing vehicles from passing through several residential areas. </s> Kabul: Both Taliban and government forces claimed they were in control of the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni today, after insurgents stormed the provincial capital, triggering fierce fighting.

Afghan officials said they were in control of Ghazni late yesterday with authorities in Kabul saying security forces were conducting a clearance operation targeting Taliban fighters who had taken up positions in residential homes.

But information about who controlled the city was difficult to confirm with power and mobile services cut to the area after the Taliban destroyed a telecommunications tower, according to Ghazni MP Shah Gul Rezaye.

“The central government in Kabul said the situation in Ghazni was under their control, but we managed to contact officials in Ghazni who said that fighting was underway in areas surrounding Ghazni,” said the parliamentarian.

Rezaye said additional reinforcements had been rushed to Ghazni late yesterday, after US forces deployed attack helicopters and launched at least one drone strike to push back the Taliban fighters.

The Taliban, however, claimed victory saying their fighters were now in control of Ghazni after routing Afghan forces.

“Last night, our mujahideen have completely conquered a battalion in Ghazni, seizing weapons and ammunition and four pickup trucks,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a message to journalists today.

“Our mujahideen are protecting the city of Ghazni.” The insurgents frequently exaggerate their battlefield gains and downplay losses incurred during clashes.

Ghazni — less than two hours by road from Kabul — has been under increasing danger from massing Taliban fighters for months with reports suggesting insurgents had already infiltrated the city.

The attack, which began late Thursday, was the latest attempt by the Taliban to seize an urban centre and comes as pressure mounts on the insurgents to enter peace talks with the government to end the nearly 17-year-old war. (PTI) </s> KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents attacked police headquarters and other government buildings in Ghazni in central Afghanistan on Sunday and were threatening to seize control of the city, with the main highway now heavily mined, local lawmakers and residents said.

U.S. aircraft conducted at least four air strikes but details of the fighting were unclear as most of the city’s telecoms masts were destroyed in fighting over recent days.

But lawmakers from Ghazni who managed to talk to some residents said Taliban were in control of much of the city after launching an initial attack in the early hours of Friday.

“Only the governor’s office, police headquarters and intelligence agency’s compound are in the hands of the government and Taliban are pushing to take them,” said Chaman Shah Ehtemadi, a lawmaker from Ghazni.

The attack on Ghazni, a strategic city on the main highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan’s south, was the most serious blow to the government since the insurgents came close to overrunning the western city of Farah in May.

Mohammad Rahim Hasanyar, a member of the provincial council, said heavy fighting was continuing in several areas of the city and Afghan forces were in defence mode.

“No one knows what the exact situation is because there is no communication service,” he said.

There was no confirmed word on casualties. Quoting a hospital official, Afghanistan’s 1TV television reported more than 90 members of the security forces and 13 civilians had been killed, with more than 100 wounded. It said there had also been heavy Taliban casualties.

With the highway heavily mined to prevent reinforcements from arriving, residents were largely blocked inside but some who managed to escape across fields on the city’s periphery said many government buildings were ablaze.

“There was burning and fire and dead bodies everywhere in the city,” said Abdul Wakil, a local resident who escaped told Reuters at a checkpoint into Kabul.

A senior security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Special Forces units had been sent to push the Taliban back from around the city but many fighters were still inside the centre after going into hiding following their initial assault in the early hours of Friday.

The official said Afghan and U.S. aircraft had carried out strikes outside the city but many fighters were in residential areas, making it difficult for security forces to rely on air support.

U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said sporadic clashes were occurring and American aircraft had conducted five strikes on Saturday and four more on Sunday.

“The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces continue to hold their ground and maintain control of all government centers,” Lt Col Martin O’Donnell, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman, said in an emailed statement.

The attack on Ghazni leaves the future of peace talks with the Taliban uncertain. The government had been considering a ceasefire over this month’s Eid al Adha holiday to match a similar truce during June’s Eid al Fitr holiday. </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Taliban launched a multi-pronged attack in attempts to overrun a provincial capital in Afghanistan on Friday, hiding inside people’s homes before slipping into city streets overnight and setting off daylong clashes with U.S.-backed Afghan forces trying to push them back.

At least 14 Afghan policemen were killed and 20 were wounded in the assault on Ghazni, the capital of a province with the same name, provincial police chief Farid Ahmad Mashal told The Associated Press.

The attack first began around 2 a.m. with intense gunbattles raging and fires burning in several shops in the city’s residential areas, he said. Fighting continued throughout the day and by mid-afternoon, the Taliban had set the local TV building on fire.

Taliban fighters also destroyed the telecommunications tower, located just outside the city, cutting all cellphone and landline access to Ghazni, according to Ali Akbar Kasemi, a lawmaker from the city.

Afghan troops on the ground called in airstrikes to try quash the offensive.

As evening approached, fighting focused mainly in three directions into the city, said Nasrat Rahimi, deputy spokesman for the Interior Ministry. The Taliban were using people’s homes to hide in, making it difficult for security forces to flush them out.

The city was in lockdown as residents reported sporadic bursts of gunfire. Taliban fighters had hunkered down in elevated positions inside Ghazni from where they were shooting, some residents said earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear for their safety.

People were staying indoors and all shops in the city remained closed, they said. The highway from Kabul to Afghanistan’s southern provinces was also closed as it runs through Ghazni.

An Afghan military helicopter crash landed in the city during the daytime fighting, and four Afghan soldiers on board were injured, one critically, said Mohammad Radmanish, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense.

The Taliban claimed they had downed the “enemy” helicopter in Ghazni but Radmanish said it was not immediately clear if the helicopter had been hit or crash landed due to other reasons.

Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, said American forces and U.S. attack helicopters flew in overnight to assist Afghan troops in Ghazni.

“U.S. forces responded with close-air support and conducted one drone strike,” he said.

Later, as fighting continued throughout the day, O’Donnell said U.S. forces returned American attack helicopters and fighter jets that had been pulled out back to the area.

“It is a show of presence,” he said.

The brazen assault by the Taliban, who have been gaining more ground in their annual spring offensive and who have shrugged off the government’s latest offers of a cease-fire and negotiations, underscore the difficulties Afghan forces face in battling the relentless insurgency on their own in efforts to end the nearly 17-year war.

The blitz assault on Ghazni forced Afghan forces to conduct house-to-house searches, looking for Taliban fighters, which was slowing the operation down. An investigation was also underway to determine how the insurgents had managed to infiltrate so deep into the city, barely 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

Baz Mohammad Hemat, the administrator of the Ghazni city hospital, said two wounded civilians were also brought in to the hospital. He was worried more wounded could be out there as the city was shut down and ambulances were not being sent out.

Mashal, the police chief, said there were more than 100 other casualties but he could not give a breakdown of the dead and wounded. Most of the casualties were Taliban, he said, and many of their bodies remained on the streets.

In one location, bodies of 39 Taliban fighters were recovered from under a bridge on the southern edge of the city, he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed that parts of Ghazni had been seized and that Taliban fighters had killed scores of people. He also told the AP over the phone that Taliban anti-aircraft fire downed the Afghan army helicopter.

In Kabul, shopkeeper Azizullah, who goes only by one name like many Afghan men, said he was frantic with worry for his family in Ghazni after not hearing from them for the past three hours.

“I am so worried what the night will bring and what is going to happen to the city if the Taliban capture it,” he said.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, a Taliban attack Thursday night in western Herat province left six policemen dead in the district of Obe, said the governor’s spokesman there, Gelani Farhad.

Mujahid did not comment on the Herat attack.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country since NATO and the United States formally ended their combat mission in 2014, and have seized control of several districts. U.S. and NATO forces remain in Afghanistan mainly in a supporting and training role.

Separately from the Taliban, an Islamic State affiliate has also carried out dozens of deadly attacks in recent years, mainly targeting security forces and minority Shiites.

Associated Press writers Kathy Gannon in Islamabad and Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report. </s> Heavily armed Taliban fighters attacked Ghazni city in central Afghanistan early on Friday, burning police checkpoints, shelling houses and business areas and seizing control of parts of the city, officials said.

US attack helicopters and drone aircraft provided government forces with air support. But as smoke rose across the city and witnesses reported bodies lying in the streets, and it was unclear how much of Ghazni was under government control.

Ghazni police chief General Farid Ahmad Mashal said the Taliban had seized several parts of the city, which has been under threat for months with heavy fighting in surrounding districts.

A statement from US military headquarters in Kabul said fighting had ceased by 8am and Afghan forces had held their ground and maintained control of all government centres.

“US forces responded with close-air support [US attack helicopters] and conducted one strike [drone]. In addition, US aircraft conducted a show of presence,” Lt Col. Martin O’Donnell, spokesman for US Forces-Afghanistan said in an emailed statement.

However the attack on a strategic city straddling the main route between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan demonstrated the Taliban’s strength just days before a possible ceasefire during this month’s Eid al-Adha holiday.

Officials said clashes between security forces and the Taliban started at around 2am, forcing the closure of the main highway linking Ghazni to the capital Kabul, 150km to the northeast.

“The Taliban are dropping missiles near residential and commercial areas. There has not been a single minute of silence for the last eight hours,” said a senior government official in Ghazni early on Friday.

As helicopters circled overhead, a second government official said it was too dangerous for people to leave their homes and he had no immediate details on casualties.

“It is not possible to get out of our homes to help the injured or collect bodies,” he said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement saying multiple attacks were launched overnight in Ghazni. Dozens of Afghan soldiers and police had been killed and large quantities of weapons and equipment had been seized, he said.

However, O’Donnell said initial reports indicated minimal casualties among Afghan security forces.

“This is yet another failed Taliban attempt to seize terrain, which will result in yet another eye-catching, but strategically inconsequential headline,” he said.

The attack came amid growing hopes of talks to end 17 years of war in Afghanistan and less than two weeks before the Eid al-Adha festival, when the Western-backed government in Kabul had been considering offering a ceasefire.

In June, a three-day truce over the Eid al-Fitr holiday brought unprecedented scenes of unarmed Taliban fighters mingling with security forces in Kabul and other cities, offering a glimpse of peace and fuelling hopes of negotiations to end the war.

The Taliban have so far failed to take and hold any provincial centre since they overran the northern city of Kunduz in 2015 before being driven off with the support of US air strikes and Special Forces units.

They came close to repeating the feat in 2016, and in May this year they nearly overran the western city of Farah before being beaten back with the aid of US forces.

Taliban militants and insurgents belonging to the other groups have been active in Ghazni province, and Taliban fighters captured a district there and killed its governor in April.

The attack on Ghazni underscored how volatile the security situation across Afghanistan remains less than three months before parliamentary elections in October.
A large-scale military offensive is launched by the Taliban in a bid to overrun the southeastern city of Ghazni, a provincial capital on the Kabul–Kandahar Highway. They manage to take control of a part of the city.