WorlPosted at: Aug 8 2021 3:10PM Taliban take over Kunduz province, free prisoners
Kabul, Aug 8 (UNI) The Taliban on Sunday overran Kunduz province in the north of Afghanistan – the third province to fall in the past two days after Nimroz and Jawzjan province.
The Taliban entered Kunduz province and the city and attacked the central prison releasing prisoners. Videos on social media showed the prisoners leaving the prison after the Taliban destroyed the wall of the facility with a rocket.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid in his Twitter post confirmed that the Islamist militia have entered Police District 2 of Kunduz city, Khaama Press reported.
Videos on social media showed dozens of shops and buildings engulfed in fire amid fierce fighting between the Afghan forces and the Taliban in Kunduz.
“The Taliban have taken Chawk-e-Kunduz (the center of the city),” sources told Tolo News.
Dozens of families have fled their homes.
Afghan Ministry of Defense said commandos have been deployed in the city and they have cleared Abdul Razaq square from Taliban fighters. The Ministry said the city will soon be cleared of the Taliban, Khaama reported.
The Taliban claim to have taken the headquarters of the national police, local office of the National Directorate of Security (NDS), and the central jail of Kunduz province in the provincial capital.
On Saturday, the Taliban toppled southwestern Nimroz, and the northern Jawzjan province, and have now overrun Kunduz and Sar-e-Pul, in northern Afghanistan that borders the province of Jawzjan and Balkh. The Afghan government has not confirmed the collapse of the latter two provinces, Khaama reported.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Ministry of Defense said 40 Taliban insurgents have been killed and 14 wounded in aerial strikes launched targeting the Taliban in the northern provincial capital of Jawzjan on Saturday night.
The airstrikes come hours after US President Joe Biden ordered the use of B-52 bombers and Spectre gunships to target Taliban positions.
US defense sources said the bombers have targeted Taliban positions in Kandahar, Herat, and Helmand provinces.
Biden ordered the bombers after the Taliban toppled two provinces in 24 hours.
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