Taliban launch assault on Afghanistan’s Kunduz

TIL Desk/World/Kunduz-The Taliban launched an assault on Kunduz, which was the scene of intense fighting today, one year after the Islamist militia briefly took over the northern Afghan city following a lightning offensive.  The assault came just a day before President Ashraf Ghani is due to meet world powers at a major donors conference in Brussels.

The attack began in the early hours at the southern and eastern approaches to the provincial capital where the militants were engaged in battles with government forces. Two Afghan army helicopters were flying over the city, which was deserted, with streets empty and shops closed. The attack comes just over a year after the Taliban overran Kunduz, the only provincial capital to have fallen into their hands since they were ousted from power in 2001.  Government control of the city has been shaky ever since.

Ghani will meet with world leaders in Brussels on Tuesday and Wednesday in a bid to secure financial aid from the international community up to 2020 to rebuild his war-ravaged country.  The meeting will try to drum up support from an international community suffering from aid fatigue as it grapples with conflicts in Syria and Iraq plus the worst migration crisis since World War II.