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Taliban Fighters Remain In Kunduz, One Day After Afghan Army Regains Control


Afghan security forces investigate a site where vehicles were burned the previous night amid ongoing fighting against Taliban militants near the airport in Kunduz on October 1.
Afghan security forces investigate a site where vehicles were burned the previous night amid ongoing fighting against Taliban militants near the airport in Kunduz on October 1.

Some Taliban fighters remain in Kunduz, a day after Afghan forces recaptured most of the northern city from the militants.

Local residents on October 2 said Taliban fighters were holed up in civilian homes fighting the Afghan Army.

Hamdullah Danishi, the acting governor of Kunduz Province, described the regional capital as calm, and said there was "no major fighting."

He acknowledged, however, that the insurgents had not been completely driven from the strategic city of 300,000.

On October 1, the Afghan Army regained control over most of Kunduz, which the Taliban captured in a pre-dawn attack on September 28.

The Taliban have been accused of extrajudicial killings, raping, torturing, looting and setting fire to government buildings during their three-day occupation of Kunduz, the Afghan president's office said in a statement on October 2.

"Afghanistan is committed to legally prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes, and to that end, assigns a civilian commission to assess the losses sustained as a result of the Taliban presence," the statement said.

At least 60 people have been killed in the fighting as of October 2, according to a Health Ministry spokesman. He said hospitals in Kunduz had treated about 466 wounded.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it was increasingly concerned about the welfare of citizens inside the city and the lack of medical supplies and personnel.

"We are very short-staffed in the hospitals," said Peter Esmith Ewoi, an ICRC doctor working in the city. "The medical staff in the city cannot get to the hospitals because of the ongoing fighting."

The ICRC said it has emergency medical supplies ready to be flown in as soon as security at Kunduz airport improves.

Despite being mostly driven from Kunduz, the Taliban were reported to have made fresh gains elsewhere.

A spokesman for the governor of Badakhsan Province said the Taliban had taken control of the Warduj district late on October 1 after heavy fighting.

Meanwhile, a U.S. military transport plane crashed at an airfield in Jalalabad in the east of the country early on October 2, killing all 11 people on board.

The U.S. military described the crash as an accident, denying a Taliban claim that it had shot down the aircraft.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

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