Taliban Still Striving To Conquer Kunduz,Despite an Overnight Setback - launch new offensive in Badakhsan Province

Heavy fighting for control of Kunduz,Afghanistan continued overnight Wednesday,with Afghan National Defence and Security Forces retaking the city centre,assisted by their NATO advisors.Combat operations continued on Thursday,however,with the Taliban reportedly still controlling certain government buildings outside the city centre.NATO troops were photographed in Kunduz during the day Thursday riding in the back of a truck.It isn't known if the NATO forces got into anymore firefights with the Taliban as they did Wednesday morning near the airport,but heavy US airstrikes were reported overnight by Kunduz residents.At least five US airstrikes have been carried out in support of the ANDSF.*
Some city residents witnessed a Taliban counterattack on Thursday,as the militants rode into town in stolen vehicles wearing ANDSF uniforms.These jihadists in disguise were said to have pushed at least some of the Afghan troops back to the city's outskirts.
The Taliban looted banks and commandeered several military and civilian vehicles and weapons when they seized Kunduz early Monday,so could conceivably sustain their mission for some time.*
The importance of this battle is underscored by NATO's firm,swift response,sending special forces to the front lines and even engaging the enemy in ground combat as needed,as well as providing close air support.The whole scenario being played out in Kunduz calls into question President Barack Obama's plan to withdraw almost all US troops by the end of 2016.Afghanistan Chief Executive Dr.Abdullah Abdullah told Reuters that,as far as I understand,the views of those US Army generals and officers on the ground in Afghanistan,as well as our own security and military leadership,is that maintaining a level of force beyond 2016 is necessary.
Update:By Friday morning,ANDSF were going house to house in Kunduz,seeking Taliban holdouts who are using civilians as human shields.One resident reported that other militants were firing at people indiscriminately from tall buildings.Overall,the city was back under Afghan control with scattered pockets of resistance remaining and residents still sheltering in their homes.
The NATO contingent of US,British,German and Dutch troops are based at the airport just outside the city with the ANDSF,should any further help be needed.
The Taliban are being accused by Amnesty International and the Afghan government of having committed war crimes during their Kunduz occupation,including rape,torture and extrajudicial execution.The Islamist extremists were targeting women in particular,enlisting young boys to help them find residents on their hit list.
Meanwhile,the Taliban have expanded their offensive in the North by swarming Warduj district in Badakhsan Province.The militants overwhelmed multiple checkpoints in district villages,achieving supremacy by the end of day Friday,with the police headquarters falling at about 6 pm local time.
The district borders Tajikistan,Pakistan and China.

Afghan War:Provincial Capital Falls To Taliban - US air support sent in

In the pre-dawn hours of Monday,hundreds of Taliban militants and foreign fighters from as far afield as China and Central Asia streamed into the provincial capital of Kunduz in the far north of Afghanistan,apparently facing little resistance from the NATO-trained Afghan National Defence and Security Forces.Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said the ANDSF were being restrained to avoid civilian casualties.The Taliban have been using civilians as human shields,Mr.Ghani explained.The assault came from all directions,taking the ANDSF and local officials by surprise.
President Ghani said the ANDSF mounted a counterattack,retakng some government buildings including the new police headquarters and the prison.
Initially,the militants had liberated as many as 6oo prisoners from the Kunduz prison,several of them Taliban fighters.They also captured a TV station and took the central square of the capital of Kunduz Province,raising their flag,and setting up checkpoints to seal the city off.It was an unprecedented victory for the Islamist extremists in their nearly 14 year-long war with Afghan and NATO forces,the first provincial capital they have managed to seize,and is a statement by their new leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour,who replaced Mullah Omar following the latter's death in a Pakistan hospital two years ago.*
There are no US troops in the area,but German soldiers control a major base in nearby Mazar-i-Sharif.The Taliban have made the north a focus of this fighting season,and control large swaths of it.The ANDSF have been stretched to the limit trying to resist the Taliban,largely without NATO ground forces to help them since December 2014.The US does provide some counterterrorist troops and occasional air support,as they provided for the ANDSF on Tuesday.Colonel Brian Tribus,spokesman for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan,said the US airstrike was to eliminate a threat to coalition and Afghan forces in the area.US F-16 aircraft struck Taliban positions on the outskirts of the city.The militants had carried out an ambush on ANDSF,placed IEDs and cut power lines.They also destroyed parts of a key artery from Kabul,the Baghlan-Kunduz highway,blocking ANDSF reinforcements from arriving.On Tuesday evening,heavy fighting erupted when they attacked the airport that ANDSF and officials had fallen back to.*
Speaking at the UN in New York,Afghan Chief Executive Dr.Abdullah Abdullah said the presence of terrorist sanctuaries and support networks in neighbouring Pakistan continue to cause trouble in Afghanistan.Militants cross into Afghanistan and indiscriminately victimise our citizens.*
Kunduz Province borders the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan.
Update:Tuesday night,the US conducted a second airstrike in Kunduz.Taliban positions near the airport were struck.