Taliban fighters have been driven out of Kunduz by security forces after their offensive on the northern Afghan city, an official Afghan source said on Sunday (1 September). However, other fighting erupted in the town of Pul-e Khumri, capital of the neighboring province of Baghlan.
The insurgents had launched their forces from several directions in the night from Friday to Saturday to try to seize Kunduz, a strategic city located near the Tajik border.
Heavy fighting took place on Saturday, during which the Afghan army received US air support, AFP spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP. "The city of Kunduz has been cleaned up, the Taliban repelled from the areas they had taken," he said. "The situation in the city is back to normal".
disputes
But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid disputed this claim, saying the insurgents were holding their positions. "The enemy's propaganda that the mujahideen were driven out or killed is false," he told reporters.
Hundreds of Taliban fighters have also attacked the town of Pul-e Khumri, where fierce fighting is under way, according to a spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of the Interior. The main road linking Kabul in the north of the country was closed Sunday because of fighting, local residents and officials said. Afghan officials, however, assured that the situation was "under control".
Fighting was also taking place in Ghazni province in central Afghanistan and in Laghman province east of Kabul, the Taliban and government officials said.
A future peace agreement?
Meanwhile, US negotiators and Taliban delegates seem close to the conclusion of an agreement paving the way for a political solution to the conflict in Afghanistan, said Sunday a senior US diplomat.
Early on Sunday, US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad claimed, in fact, on Twitter that the two sides were "on the verge of concluding an agreement that will reduce violence and pave the way for Afghans to sit down together to negotiate an honorable and peaceful peace. sustainable. "
Zalmay Khalilzad said he will travel to the capital Kabul on Sunday for consultations after wrapping up a ninth round of talks in Qatar with Taliban representatives.
"We are at the gate of an agreement that will limit the violence and pave the way for Afghans to negotiate a lasting peace and a unified and sovereign Afghanistan that threatens neither the United States, its allies nor any other country, "said the US envoy on Twitter.
This statement echoes what was said a few days earlier by Taliban representatives, who said they were close to an agreement with Washington that would allow a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in exchange for assurances that the country would not become a refuge for extremist groups.
With AFP and Reuters