Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A destroyed Russian tank is seen alongside one of two minarets built in the 12th Century in Ghazni city

An ancient tower in the Afghan city of Ghazni has collapsed, raising questions over the government's ability to protect the country's artefacts.

Footage uploaded to social media shows a fort in the old city crumbling.

The tower was one of dozens already destroyed in the city. Officials blamed heavy rain, but some critics accuse the government of negligence.

Ghazni's Islamic and pre-Islamic architecture is widely admired although war has taken its toll.

Mohammad Saber Mohmand, a spokesman for the ministry of information and culture, told Tolo News the fort was "vulnerable to rainfall and mostly damaged by rain".

Skip Twitter post by @TOLOnews A tower in the ancient Ghaznain Fort in Ghazni’s old city collapsed on Tuesday. The fort had 32 towers, most of which have collapsed over the past few years due to “inattention” by relevant government departments. pic.twitter.com/fvo9ntb3Vo — TOLOnews (@TOLOnews) June 11, 2019 Report

"The main highway is located near the fort, which affects the towers," he added.

Ghazni was a thriving Buddhist centre up until the 7th Century. But in 683 AD, Arab armies brought Islam to the region. In the 13th Century it was destroyed by the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan, led by his son Ogedei Khan.

The ancient city has been designated an Asian city of Islamic Culture by the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation.

However, many of the city's ancient buildings have been difficult for outsiders to visit due to the Taliban insurgency. </s> Ancient tower collapse caught on camera in Ghazni in Afghanistan

The ancient towers of Ghazni have stood through centuries of war and upheaval — until now.

Situated on the strategically vital main route between Kabul and southern Afghanistan, the city is believed to have been built in the 13th century and has seen British, Russian and US invaders come and go.

But now footage of one of the towers collapsing into a cloud of dust has raised fears that neglect may prove more dangerous to the monuments than the shells and bombs of rival armies.

In video posted to social media, dust is seen billowing from beneath the tower in the ancient fort, before the structure starts to crumble, sending bystanders fleeing.

It is one of 32 towers in the old city of Ghazni — many of which have been destroyed in recent years, according to the BBC.

"The main highway is located near the fort, which affects the towers," Mohammad Saber Mohmand, a spokesman for Ministry of Information and Culture, told TOLOnews, which obtained the video.

Now the Afghan government is being urged to help protect the surviving towers.

Ghazni, a trading and transit hub, is home to a number of cultural heritage sites, but the ancient buildings have been difficult for outsiders to access in recent times due to the Taliban insurgency. </s> BBC News: An ancient tower in the Afghan city of Ghazni has collapsed, raising questions over the government’s ability to protect the country’s artefacts. Footage uploaded to social media shows a fort in the old city crumbling. The tower was one of dozens already destroyed in the city. Officials blamed heavy rain, but some critics accuse the government of negligence. Ghazni’s Islamic and pre-Islamic architecture is widely admired although war has taken its toll. Click here to read more (external link).
• Ancient tower collapse caught on camera in Ghazni in Afghanistan </s> KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan forces were still battling the Taliban in parts of Ghazni on Saturday, a day after the insurgents launched a multi-pronged assault on the eastern city.

Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said at least 25 security forces have been killed and wounded since the assault began early Friday, and that a local reporter was killed. It was unclear how many other civilians had been killed or wounded during the attack. Danish said more than 150 insurgents have been killed or wounded.

He said that although the fighting was still underway, “the situation is under control and there isn’t any serious threat.”

“Any threat which could cause the fall of the city has been eliminated,” he added.

The Taliban claim to have seized parts of the city and to have killed local officials. In a media statement, the group said it had seized dozens of armored vehicles as well as light and heavy weapons and ammunition. They said they “liberated” the central prison in Ghazni and freed all Taliban prisoners.

It was not possible to verify the claims because the Taliban destroyed a nearby communications tower, cutting off cellphone and landline access to the city. The insurgents also set fire to the local TV headquarters, making it difficult to broadcast images from Ghazni.

The city of about 140,000 people was in lockdown for the second day as residents stayed indoors and reported sporadic gunfire. The highway from Kabul to Afghanistan’s southern provinces, which runs through Ghazni, is still closed.

Ghazni is a gateway city linking the heavily Taliban-influenced south and east of Afghanistan to Kabul and is one of the last vestiges of government control in the province of the same name. The Taliban holds sway in most of the province where ethnic Pashtuns live, while the government’s influence is limited to Ghazni and small pockets dominated by ethnic Hazaras.

In northern Baghlan province, meanwhile, Taliban attacked police and army checkpoints, killing 13 police and soldiers, officials said.

Gen. Ekramuddin Serih, provincial police chief, said six policemen were killed and two police officers were wounded in the gun battle Friday night in Baghlani Kohna district. At least 10 insurgents were killed and four other were wounded, he said.

Seven soldiers were killed and two other troops were taken alive by the insurgents, according to a provincial official from Baghlan governor’s office who was not authorized to speak with media about casualties.

“Taliban were not able to overrun the checkpoints and were defeated by the (security) forces,” said Serih.

The Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country since NATO and the United States formally ended their combat mission in 2014. U.S. and NATO forces remain in Afghanistan mainly in a supporting and training role in the 17-year-old war. </s> Taliban terrorists attacked police headquarters and other government buildings in Ghazni in central Afghanistan on Sunday and were threatening to seize control of the city, with the main highway now heavily mined, local lawmakers and residents said.

U.S. aircraft conducted at least four air strikes and local media said around 100 people, mostly members of the security forces, had been killed. But details of the fighting were unclear as most of the city’s telecom masts were destroyed in fighting over recent days.

Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, Afghan army chief of staff, said the city was not under threat of collapse and heavy fighting was underway to push back the Taliban from city limits.

“Strategic locations and centers in the city are under the control of Afghan forces and the Taliban are hiding inside people’s homes and shops and resisting,” Yaftali told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.

But lawmakers from Ghazni who managed to talk to some residents said Taliban were in control of much of the city after launching an initial attack in the early hours of Friday.

“Only the governor’s office, police headquarters and intelligence agency’s compound are in the hands of the government and Taliban are pushing to take them,” said Chaman Shah Ehtemadi, a lawmaker from Ghazni.

The attack, the heaviest blow struck by the Taliban since they came close to overrunning the western city of Farah in May, dampened hopes of peace talks which had grown since a surprise three-day truce during a religious holiday in June.

But local officials have warned for months that Ghazni, a strategic city on the main highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan’s south, was under threat, with the Taliban in control of most of the surrounding province.

Mohammad Rahim Hasanyar, a member of the provincial council, said heavy fighting was continuing in several areas of the city and Afghan forces were in defence mode.

“No one knows what the exact situation is because there is no communication service,” he said.

There was no confirmed word on casualties. Quoting a hospital official, Afghanistan’s 1TV reported more than 90 members of the security forces and 13 civilians had been killed, with more than 100 wounded. It said there had also been heavy Taliban casualties.

With the highway heavily mined to prevent reinforcements from arriving, residents were largely blocked inside but some who managed to escape across fields on the city’s periphery said many government buildings were ablaze.

“There was burning and fire and dead bodies everywhere in the city,” Abdul Wakil, a local resident who escaped, told Reuters at a checkpoint into Kabul.

President Ashraf Ghani made no mention of the crisis during an extended speech on youth affairs on Sunday and with little coming out from the government, people were left to rely on alternative sources of information.

Short videos circulating on social media, purported to be from Ghazni, showed a number of heavily armed Taliban patrolling in the city with a large plume of smoke and flames coming out from the town.

U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said sporadic clashes were occurring and American aircraft had conducted five strikes on Saturday and four more on Sunday.

“The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces continue to hold their ground and maintain control of all government centres,” Lt. Col. Martin O’Donnell, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman, said in an emailed statement.

The Taliban have not taken a major provincial center since they overran the northern city of Kunduz in 2015 and the assault on Ghazni was a major blow to the Western-backed government just weeks before parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 20. </s> Security forces were in control of the eastern Afghan city of Ghazni on Saturday, officials said, more than a day after Taliban fighters launched a major onslaught on the provincial capital, as reinforcements continued a clearance operation targeting the militants.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said fresh reinforcements had arrived in the area and were battling Taliban fighters north of Ghazni, and that the insurgents were in no position to take control of the city.

“The situation is fully under control. The city is not going to fall,” Danish told a press conference after confusion mounted over Ghazni's fate following hours of official silence.

A spokesman for United States (US) forces in Afghanistan also described the fight for the city as a clearance operation, with sporadic clashes between security forces and insurgents punctuating relative calm.

“The fact remains that the Taliban are unable to seize terrain and unable to match the Afghan security forces or our enablement, retreating once directly and decisively engaged,” Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell told AFP.

Insurgents entered Ghazni from several directions late on Thursday night, attacking media offices and damaging a telecommunications tower, effectively shutting off mobile service to the city as of Friday afternoon — making information about the fight difficult to verify.

An MP from Ghazni urged caution following Danish's press conference, saying heavy clashes continued to rage between the two sides.

“Intense fighting is still ongoing in Ghazni city. The prison is under attack from several directions, they are trying to free the prisoners,” said Nafisa Azimi by telephone from Kabul.

“Fear is spreading in Ghazni as the day ends, the Taliban might intensify their attack as it gets dark.”

Danish said at least 25 security forces had died in the fighting along with 150 Taliban fighters. At least one media worker from a local broadcaster was also killed.

Earlier on Saturday, the Taliban claimed victory in the fight for the embattled city, saying their forces were in control of Ghazni after routing Afghan troops.

“Last night, our mujahideen have completely conquered a battalion in Ghazni, seizing weapons and ammunitions and four pickup trucks,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid in a message to journalists. “Our mujahideen are protecting the city of Ghazni.”

The Taliban often exaggerate their battlefield gains and downplay losses incurred during clashes.

Ghazni — less than two hours by road from Kabul — has been under increasing danger from massing Taliban fighters for months, with reports suggesting insurgents had already infiltrated the city.

Political analyst Atta Noori said the lack of official response to the mounting threat would likely dent already fraying public confidence in Kabul's ability to confront the Taliban.

“The government might be in control of the city but it always remains under threat,” said Noori.

The attack was the latest attempt by the Taliban to seize an urban centre and comes as pressure mounts on the militant movement to enter peace talks with the government to end the nearly 17-year-old war.

It was also the largest tactical operation by the Taliban since an unprecedented ceasefire in June brought fighting between security forces and the Taliban to a temporary halt, giving war-weary Afghans some welcome relief from the bloodshed. </s> KABUL (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents attacked police headquarters and other government buildings in Ghazni in central Afghanistan on Sunday, killing dozens of soldiers and police and threatening to seize control of the city, officials and residents said.

U.S. aircraft conducted at least four air strikes but details of the fighting were unclear as most of the city’s telecoms masts were destroyed in fighting over recent days.

A senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said around 80 members of the security forces, as well as an unknown number of civilians had been killed.

Mohammad Sharif Yaftali, Afghan army chief of staff, said the city was not under threat of collapse and heavy fighting was underway to push back the Taliban from the city limits.

“Strategic locations and centers in the city are under the control of Afghan forces and the Taliban are hiding inside people’s homes and shops and resisting,” Yaftali told reporters at a news conference in Kabul.

But lawmakers from Ghazni who managed to talk to some residents said the Taliban were in control of much of the city after launching an initial attack in the early hours of Friday.

“Only the governor’s office, police headquarters and intelligence agency’s compound are in the hands of the government and Taliban are pushing to take them,” said Chaman Shah Ehtemadi, a lawmaker from Ghazni.

The attack, the heaviest blow struck by the Taliban since they came close to overrunning the western city of Farah in May, dampened hopes of peace talks which had grown since a surprise three-day truce during the Eid al-Fitr holiday in June.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the insurgents had taken the district center of Khwajaumari, north of the city, and several areas in other districts of Ghazni province. Many members of the security forces had surrendered, he said.

Local officials have warned for months that Ghazni, a city on the main highway linking Kabul with Afghanistan’s south, was under threat, with the Taliban in control of most of the surrounding province.

Mohammad Rahim Hasanyar, a member of the provincial council, said heavy fighting was continuing in several areas of the city and Afghan forces were in defense mode.

“No one knows what the exact situation is because there is no communication service,” he said.

With the highway heavily mined to prevent reinforcements from arriving, residents were largely trapped inside but some who managed to escape across fields on the city’s periphery said many government buildings were ablaze.

“There was burning and fire and dead bodies everywhere in the city,” Abdul Wakil, a resident who escaped, told Reuters at a checkpoint into Kabul.

The Red Cross said on Twitter that it was watching the situation closely. It had supplied body bags to the provincial hospital and was ready to provide more assistance.

President Ashraf Ghani made no mention of the crisis during an extended speech on youth affairs on Sunday and with little coming out from the government, people were left to rely on alternative sources of information.

Short videos circulating on social media, purported to be from Ghazni, showed a number of heavily armed Taliban patrolling in the city with a large plume of smoke and flames coming out from the town.

“It is over and the city is taken,” said a man standing outside his home, with several Taliban insurgents nearby.

The videos could not be independently verified by Reuters but they generated heavy commentary by social media users that underlined the shock caused by the attack.

U.S. military headquarters in Kabul said sporadic clashes were occurring and American aircraft had conducted five strikes on Saturday and four more on Sunday.

“The Afghan National Defence and Security Forces continue to hold their ground and maintain control of all government centers,” Lt Col Martin O’Donnell, U.S. Forces Afghanistan spokesman, said in an emailed statement.

The Taliban have not taken a major provincial center since they overran the northern city of Kunduz in 2015 and the assault on Ghazni was a major blow to the Western-backed government just weeks before parliamentary elections scheduled for Oct. 20. </s> The Taliban have killed more than 200 Afghan soldiers and police officers in four provincial districts in the last three days, with the heaviest losses occurring in the key city of Ghazni just south of Kabul, according to The New York Times.

More than 100 Afghan security forces have been killed in Ghazni, about 40 to 100 were killed in the Ajristan District, more than 50 were killed at a base in Faryab Province, and at least 16 were killed in the northern Baghlan Province, The New York Times reported.

The fighting in Ghazni appeared to still be raging on Monday after the Taliban launched a heavy assault on the city on Friday, killing more than 100 Afghan soldiers and police officers since then.

Afghan defense minister Tariq Shah Bahrami said Monday that 194 Taliban fighters and at least 20 civilians had also been killed, according to TOLO News, adding that 1,000 extra Afghan troops have been sent to quell the situation.

In this Sunday, Aug. 12, 2018, photo, an Injured man receives treatment at a hospital in Ghazni province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. Associated Press

"With the deployment of additional troops to the city, we have prevented the collapse of Ghazni province," Bahrami said, according to The Washington Post.

But there have been contradictory reports about how much of Ghazni the Taliban has taken.

"Ghazni City remains under Afghan government control," Lt. Col. Martin L. O'Donnell, a spokesman for Resolute Support, the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan, said Monday, adding that the situation was "relatively quiet" despite admitting the US has carried out more than a dozen airstrikes in the area since Saturday.

But Amanullah Kamrani, the deputy head of the Ghazni provincial council, told Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty on Sunday that only "the police headquarters, governor's office, and a few departments are under Afghan forces' control. ... The rest are under the Taliban fighters' control."

And Mohammad Arif Shahjahan, a lawmaker from Ghazni, told CNN on Monday that the Taliban fighters still controlled several governmental buildings and had even taken the police headquarters.

Videos posted on social media on Sunday even appear to show Taliban fighters strolling through the streets.

'Every night fighting, every night the enemy are attacking us'

"We're running out of hospital rooms; we are using corridors and available space everywhere," Baz Mohammad Hemat, the director of the hospital in Ghazni, told The New York Times, adding that 113 dead bodies and 142 wounded had gone through the hospital.

"Bodies are lying around, they have decomposed, and no one is doing anything to evacuate them," Nasir Ahmad Faqiri, a provincial council member, told The New York Times.

Meanwhile in Ajristan District, located about 90 miles west of Ghazni, the Taliban drove two vehicles packed with explosives into an Afghan commando base on Friday, killing nearly 100 government troops, The Times reported.

In the northern Faryab Province on the border of Turkmenistan, an Afghan Army base had been under attack for nearly three weeks in one provincial district when the Taliban launched a heavy assault on the base on Friday, killing more than 100 security forces, The New York Times reported.

"We don't know what to do," Captain Azam in Faryab told The Times, apparently before the Taliban launched the major assault. "Every night fighting, every night the enemy are attacking us from three sides with rockets."

Azam was killed shortly after talking to The Times over the phone, The Times reported.

These Taliban assaults are the largest since the group assaulted the capital of Farah Province in May, an event that unfolded much like the one in Ghazni, with Kabul and Resolute Support downplaying the situation, and local reports showing and saying that the Taliban took much of the city. </s> Mumbai building collapse leaves 33 dead, nearly a dozen others possibly buried

Updated

Sorry, this video has expired Video: Building collapses are common in India during monsoon season (ABC News)

Rescuers have worked through the night, removing the rubble of a collapsed apartment building in Mumbai, where at least 33 people have died and nearly a dozen others may still be buried.

Key points: The 117-year-old five-storey building was declared unsafe to live in six years ago

At least 33 people are dead and nearly a dozen could still be buried

Mumbai is returning to normal after two days of heavy downpours

Fire officer Prabhat Kumar said 15 injured survivors were pulled from the debris.

Nearly a dozen others were missing and feared trapped beneath the huge mound of broken concrete slabs and twisted steel girders after the building collapsed in India's financial capital.

Rescuers used earth-moving machines to lift concrete slabs and cement blocks as they searched for survivors.

The rickety 117-year-old, five-story building in the congested Bhendi Bazaar in south Mumbai was declared unsafe to live in six years ago, but people continued to stay there.

The residents of an adjacent building were advised to leave after it developed cracks.

The building had housed nine families in apartments above a first-floor nursery school, but the collapse on Thursday morning occurred before the toddlers had arrived for the day, police said.

Collapse came after highest rainfall since 2005

It was the first major building collapse after Mumbai recorded 315 millimetres of rainfall on Tuesday, the city's highest since 2005.

Thousands of buildings in Mumbai are more than a century old, their foundations weakened by years of heavy monsoon rains.

The collapse of a four-story building in the city's suburb of Ghatkopar last month killed 17.

Building collapses are common in India during the monsoon season, which is June to September.

High demand and lax regulations encourage some builders to use substandard materials or add unauthorised extra floors.

Property prices and rents in Mumbai are among the highest in India as the city has expanded in the past five decades.

The city is slowly returning to normal after being paralysed by heavy downpours for two days.

Since the start of the season, devastating floods across South Asia have killed at least 1,000 people and affected close to 40 million across northern India, southern Nepal and northern Bangladesh.

AP

Topics: disasters-and-accidents, storm-disaster, india

First posted
One of the towers of the centuries-old Citadel of Ghazni, Afghanistan collapses amid heavy rainfall.