DThe Taliban occupied the city of Kunduz in northern Afghanistan. Three provincial legislators from the German News Agency confirmed on Sunday that the city’s most important government institutions have been occupied by radical Islamists. The Taliban had previously announced the conquest of Kunduz. There used to be a large military camp near Kunduz.
Kunduz has long been surrounded by Taliban fighters. The Provincial Assembly said that in the past two days, Islamists intensified their attacks. Except for the military base about 3 kilometers away from the city center and the airport, the Taliban now control the entire city. Government officials have fled there. The people in the city have no water or food. They hide at home.
Kunduz, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, is also of great significance to the Bundeswehr, which withdrew from Afghanistan at the end of June nearly 20 years later. From 2003 to 2013, German soldiers monitored the security of the northern part of the country from the Kunduz field camp. Here, German soldiers fought the Taliban for hours. Nowhere in Afghanistan has more Germans killed than Kunduz and neighboring Baghlan Province. The previous year, about 100 German soldiers were stationed in the “Pamir Camp.”
Since 2015, Kunduz has fallen into the hands of radical Islamists three times. Kunduz is the third provincial capital occupied by the Taliban in 48 hours. According to eyewitnesses, fierce fighting between the Taliban and security forces also took place in Suripur, another provincial capital in the north.
Since the withdrawal of international forces, the Afghan armed forces have been fighting the Taliban on multiple fronts. Their fighters have taken control of most of the rural areas and are now increasing pressure on capital cities such as Herat, which borders Iran, and Raschkar Gah and Kandahar in the south. Recently, the Taliban captured Shebel Khan, the two provincial capitals of Josjan Province in northern Afghanistan, and Salanje, the capital of Nimrus Province in the southwest.
