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KABUL, Afghanistan – The Taliban seized the northern Afghan town of Kunduz on Sunday, officials said. It is the first major city to be overtaken by insurgents since they began their massive military offensive in May.
Kunduz, the capital of a province of the same name, is an important military and political prize. With a population of 374,000, it is a vital trade hub near the border with Tajikistan.
“All the security forces have fled to the airport and the situation is critical,” said Sayed Jawad Hussaini, deputy chief of police for a district in Kunduz town.
Clashes between government forces and Taliban fighters continued in a small town south of the city, where the local army headquarters and the airport are located, security officials said.
Security forces withdrew to the city earlier in the morning, officials said. It was not clear whether government forces, already overwhelmed, would attempt to push the Taliban out of the city.
In the previous two days, the Taliban had captured two other provincial capitals: Sheberghan, the capital of Jowzjan province, and Zaranj, the capital of Nimruz province on the Afghan-Iranian border. As Kunduz collapsed on Sunday morning, the Taliban also seized Sar-i-Pul, the capital of a northern province of the same name, officials said.
“The Taliban are marching through the streets of the city. Local residents are terrified, ”said Sayed Asadullah Danish, member of the Sar-i-Pul provincial council. Provincial officials had taken refuge at a military base on the outskirts of the city, where clashes continued, he added.
The Taliban’s streak of city victories marks a significant shift in the insurgent offensive, which began in May as international troops, led by the United States, began to withdraw. After sweeping through rural areas of the country, the insurgents’ military campaign has turned into brutal urban fighting in recent weeks, as they traveled to cities like Kandahar and Lashkar Gah in the south and Herat in the west.
The Taliban’s strategy has depleted Afghan government forces and overwhelmed local militia forces the government used to supplement its own troops, a move reminiscent of the chaotic and ethnically divided civil war of the 1990s.
“We are so tired and the security forces are so tired,” said Mr. Hussaini, the head of the Kunduz police. “At the same time, we had not received any reinforcements and the planes did not target the Taliban in time.
The Taliban briefly captured Kunduz in 2015 and again in 2016, taking control of a province for the first time since invading US forces in 2001. Both times, Afghan forces pushed back the insurgents with l aid from US air strikes. It was also in Kunduz that an American combat helicopter mistakenly attacked a Doctors Without Borders hospital in 2015, killing 42 people.
On Sunday, after a night of heavy fighting, Taliban fighters took to the streets of Kunduz and hoisted their flag in its main square, video recorded by a resident showed. Two of the city’s main markets, where traders sell fabrics and shoes, caught fire, sending dark plumes of smoke over the city.
Since the start of the US withdrawal, the Taliban have captured more than half of the approximately 400 Afghan districts, according to some estimates. Their attacks on provincial capitals violated the 2020 peace agreement between the Taliban and the United States. Under the deal, which precipitated the US withdrawal from the country, the Taliban pledged not to attack provincial centers like Kunduz.
An escalation in US airstrikes against the Taliban in recent weeks was an attempt to secure the group’s adherence to the deal. That effort has apparently failed, and the peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have become anything but an afterthought as insurgents demand military victory across Afghanistan.
Sharif Hassan and Thomas Gibbons-Neff contributed reporting.
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