Government security forces in Kunduz have called on US fighter jets to help defend the city against the Taliban [Xinhua]
Government officials in the northern city of Kunduz in Afghanistan say they have mounted a fierce defense of the city after it came under a coordinated attack by a large Taliban force.
They said that US fighter jets joined in the operation to bar Taliban fighters from seizing parts of the city, a repeat of a military offensive launched in September 2015.
Meanwhile, a Taliban spokesperson told CNN that fighters attacked the city in a coordinated offensive from four directions.
But Reuters quoted a police source in Kunduz who said that some Taliban fighters had broken through the city’s perimeter and had seized a number of civilian homes.
Another Taliban spokesperson said that fighters had overrun four government checkpoints on the outskirts of the city.
The Taliban are hoping to repeat their brief takeover of the city last year, their biggest military success to date.
Some analysts at the time 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.
On Monday, Taliban fighters also launched attacks in the southern Helmand province.
The BRICS Post with inputs from Agencies
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