ISLAMABAD - Taliban militants have seized control of an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing and capturing dozens of government soldiers.

The fall of Camp Chenaya in the Ghormach district of Faryab province late Monday followed two days of intense fighting. Officials say the Afghan National Army (ANA) base was lost after soldiers failed to receive reinforcements and air support, and ran out of ammunition and other supplies.

Ghormach district Afghanistan

Regional military and government officials Tuesday confirmed to VOA that 40 of the 70 soldiers stationed at the base surrendered to the Taliban. They said the rest have either been killed or fled to nearby mountains during the clashes.



The capture of Camp Chenaya comes as Afghan security forces, with the help of U.S. airstrikes and military advisors, regained control of the southeastern strategic city of Ghazni following days of deadly fighting with the Taliban.

Smoke rises from a residential area where gun batt Smoke rises from a residential area where gun battle is going on between Taliban and Afghan forces in Ghazni province, Afghanistan Aug. 10, 2018. Smoke rises from a residential area where gun battle is going on between Taliban and Afghan forces in Ghazni province, Afghanistan Aug. 10, 2018.

The Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman, Jawed Ghafoor, told VOA that security forces have cleared the central parts of the city of insurgents and that cleanup operations were underway on the outskirts of Ghazni.



Separately, provincial governor Waheedullah Kalemzai, confirmed to VOA by phone that insurgents have been flushed out of the capital city. “Afghan security forces currently are conducting clearing operations in four areas of the city and life is returning to normalcy in Ghazni.”



There was no immediate reaction available from the Taliban.

Ghazni Afghanistan



Army officials have confirmed the killing of 100 Afghan soldiers and police personnel as well as 30 civilians since the Taliban assaulted the city on Friday, though local media gave much higher numbers of fatalities among government forces.



Defense Minister Gen. Tariq Shah Bahrami said Monday soldiers backed by allied airstrikes killed nearly 200 insurgents, including Arab, Chechen and Pakistani nationals.



U.N. officials said they were still trying to verify reports that the fighting for the control of Ghazni has resulted in up to 150 civilian casualties.



But Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid swiftly rejected the official claims, saying insurgents have surrounded Afghan forces in parts of the city.



It was not possible to independently confirm the claims. Insurgents often issue inflated details about their battlefield gains.

A U.S. military statement Monday said the city remains under Afghan control. It said U.S. advisers are assisting Afghan forces, and since Friday U.S. “airpower has delivered decisive blows to the Taliban, killing over 140.”

A spokesman for the U.S. military, Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, said "the isolated and disparate Taliban forces remaining in the city do not pose a threat to its collapse, as some have claimed.''

"That said, clearing operations are ongoing and sporadic clashes with the Taliban, particularly outside the city, continue," he said.

The provincial capital is located on the main highway linking northern and southern Afghan provinces, including the national capital of Kabul. The fighting had brought traffic to a halt, stranding thousands of passengers for the past five days.

The International Committee for the Red Cross said a break in the fighting Monday allowed its staff to provide the provincial hospital with fuel and emergency medical supplies.

Residents and staff said the facility was running out of space.

Acting U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan Rik Peeperkon called Monday for the warring sides to take urgent steps to mitigate the suffering of Ghazni’s besieged residents and protect civilian lives.

“Vital telecommunications networks and the electricity supply are down in the city of 270,000 people, which has impacted on the water supply, and food is also reportedly running low. ... Notably, parties to the conflict need to ensure that access to medical services is not denied and respect for medical facilities and staff is upheld,” Peeperkon said.

Hostilities in Ghazni have disrupted telecommunication services, making it nearly impossible to verify conflicting claims about the fighting.</s>Fresh hope has been injected into the Afghan peace process after Taliban officials said groundbreaking preliminary talks with the US last month were “very helpful” and that another round will take place in Doha in September.

Four Taliban members met Alice Wells, a senior US state department official, at a hotel in the Qatari capital on 23 July for the first face-to-face talks in seven years.

The diplomacy follows the White House’s decision to drop its opposition to bilateral talks with the Islamist insurgency it has failed to uproot in 17 years of war.

On Sunday fighting continued for the third consecutive day between the Taliban and Afghan security forces in the eastern city of Ghazni.

The US previously said it would sit on the sidelines of an “Afghan-led, Afghan-owned” peace process. The Trump administration changed tack, however, in recognition of the Taliban’s refusal to enter negotiations with the Afghan government without first discussing the removal of foreign troops in the US.

The first round of basic contacts “were very helpful”, a senior member of the Taliban’s Quetta Shura told the Guardian. They requested anonymity as only the movement’s spokesperson is authorised to speak in public.

“The next round will be more specific and focused on key issues,” the Quetta Shura member said. They added that after the agenda-setting talks, the insurgency will eventually sit down with Afghan leaders. In February, President Ashraf Ghani offered the Taliban wide-ranging incentives for a peace deal, including political recognition and a constitutional review.

“Once the breakthrough is started it will be stunning for all,” said the Quetta Shura member.

A sense of cautious optimism has spread through Washington after the unprecedented ceasefire during the Eid holiday in June, during which 20,000 unarmed Taliban fighters flooded city centres, posting selfies and dancing with soldiers and civilians.

According to US website the Daily Beast, the Taliban negotiators have shown willingness to compromise on the longstanding demand to evict all foreign troops before any negotiations with the Afghan government. The report claimed that the Taliban could even countenance a remaining US force in the country so long as it was involved in the political process that reached such an agreement.

Christopher Kolenda, an Afghanistan veteran who was present for the talks, told the Daily Beast: “I was struck by what I detected was a much higher level of seriousness about bringing the conflict to a close than I saw in 2011.”

US officials have also been boosted by the negotiators’ commitment to ridding Afghanistan of foreign terrorist groups, a key objective upon which the war was launched in 2001. This month a Taliban assault forced 250 Isis fighters to surrender in their northern base of Jowzjan. Fighters are moving in on the Isis’ stronghold in the eastern province of Nangarhar for what may be a climactic battle.

Ghani’s administration has not objected to the preliminary US talks. This represents a positive development as similar efforts were scuppered in 2011 by then president, Hamid Karzai, who felt they undermined his government’s authority.

Reservations about the Taliban leadership’s desire for peace still run deep, however.

Before the recent talks, the Taliban’s leadership took steps to bring the group’s informal office in Doha more in line with fighters in the field, according to an official. This included setting up a communication channel for quickfire responses from inside Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s leader, Haibatullah Akhunzada, had previously barely spoken to representatives in Doha, who are often viewed suspiciously within the group and perceived to represent a fringe of the insurgency more open to peace than its military core.

Several Taliban members said that before the next round of talks Haibatullah was considering placing military representatives in the Doha team.

One potential split concerns a second ceasefire. In contrast to the Doha office, the military commanders are not in favour of another pause in hostilities during the Eid holiday at the end of the month, said a Taliban member in Helmand province, where the military leadership is based.

Military leaders may be tempted to continue the war as, despite Donald Trump’s troop surge in 2017, the latest report from the US government watchdog shows that no territory has been won back from the Taliban.

A Taliban leader said Russian diplomats had shared with him intelligence that the US will withdraw from Afghanistan in 2020, which could bolster heel-dragging and obstructionism in the talks.

Michael Semple, an expert on the region and former deputy to the EU special representative in Afghanistan, said that those predicting an imminent breakthrough in peace negotiations were engaged in “Pollyanna thinking”.

“I see a sustained military campaign, still taking advantage of safe havens in Pakistan, which is wearing down the Afghan security forces, exploiting the divisions inside the Afghan government, building up frustration within the US government and drawing us nearer the point Donald Trump pulls the plug,” he said.</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>In recent weeks, reports have surfaced in The Wall Street Journal and elsewhere that a senior State Department official, Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells, has engaged in direct talks with Taliban representatives in Qatar. The State Department has confirmed only that she met in Doha with officials of the Qatar government. The Daily Beast also has reported on the months-long unofficial initiatives of retired U.S. Army Col. Chris Kolenda and Robin Raphel, a former U.S. ambassador, that helped open the way for these conversations.

But talks need to be based on a plan and lead to a conclusion, and it is far from clear that any firm decision has been made by the United States government about what that should be, and how it might be reached. The missteps in Afghanistan have been significant and while we tread water trying to figure out what happened, or where to go, we are wasting precious resources: 2018 must be the year of change in our policy, strategy, leadership, and approach or we will never get off this road we have been on for the past 17-plus years.

What’s required is a new group of thinkers to determine whether a complete military withdrawal or a return to the comprehensive strategy approach is viable or, alternatively, to depart from Afghanistan, or enter a truce with the Taliban.

We have three basic choices and we need to make them quickly:

1) Maintain the current approach or return to a comprehensive strategy approach. Neither is recommended; 2) Depart Afghanistan, but not abandon Afghanistan; 3) Work on a truce with the Taliban.

The current approach in my opinion is not worth another body bag or hospital bed. This so called “strategy” in Afghanistan will not result in success. The current senior leaders are looking for a way out that allows them to declare victory and success.

How do we expect the same leaders with the same failed ideas, leadership approaches, and group-think to change how we do business? As noted in a previous essay, we wasted opportunities, continued to operate conventionally in an unconventional environment, we failed diplomatically, we leaned on counter-terrorism at the expense of other more effective approaches by Special Operation Forces, we endorsed some failed operational constructs and abandoned others that worked.

We thickened the bureaucracy and created unnecessary tactical units. We returned to the the commanders’ comfort zone of kinetic strikes—that is, bombing and strafing—as we continued to engage in high-value-target hunting (elimination of Taliban leaders) and body counts. Such top-down tactics had failed before, and failed again.

More disturbing, as the New York Times reported last month, the newest U.S. strategy in Afghanistan “mirrors past plans for retreat.” It calls for American-backed Afghan troops to pull back from partially populated areas of the country. The Times notes that variations on this theme were played by both the Bush and Obama administrations. But in fact the precedents are worse than that.

The strategy resembles approaches used by the Soviets during their decade-long war, in which rural areas were abandoned, allowing opposition fighters to control most of the country and wait for the opportunity to take over key cities such a Kabul, Kandahar, Lashkar Gah, Mazar e Sharif, Kunduz, and Herat. The opportunity for the Taliban to take over the cities came soon after the Soviet withdrawal and the subsequent decision to remove funding that the Afghan government depended on to remain in power. The current U.S. strategy is opening the door for a repeat of that history. It is imperative that we do not make this same mistake.

The top-down approach will not work in a country like Afghanistan, no matter how many bombs we drop, high value targets we kill, or Marines, Army Special Force Assistance Brigades, Special Operations Forces advisors and trainers we throw at the problem. The current notion that the Taliban and other violent extremist organizations have no place to hide simply has no merit.

We have worn out our Afghan partners and everyone is tired of the war. We have overstayed our welcome with the populace and drawn more violent extremist organizations to Afghanistan. We have not achieved regional security and hold zero leverage over the Taliban to force them to the negotiating table or to implement a viable reintegration program.

At this time, given the resources spent in blood and treasure, it does not sit well to depart, but it deserves serious consideration. Departing does not mean we abandoned Afghanistan or our interests in the region. There is a great danger that after a long and unpopular war, the U.S. will simply pull the plug altogether. That must not happen. We will need to continue to support an international effort to continue to financially support the Afghan government. We will need to continue our diplomatic presence and determine a way to support the Afghan government in developing businesses to increase and eventually become economically stable. We will need to remain an active member of regional security to safeguard our national interests with China, Russia, and Iran.

Working Toward a Truce With the Taliban

U.S.-Taliban negotiations are not likely to yield a satisfactory result due irreconcilable far-reaching issues with the Taliban, a lack of policy to drive it, and the fact that this is the Afghan government’s truce to work out, not ours.

As far as I know, despite the direct talks that have been reported, U.S. policy is to support an Afghan-led peace process and any negotiations over the political future of Afghanistan will be between the Taliban and Afghan government. Based on what we have done over the past 17 years it would be wise for us to stand clear and let the Taliban and Afghan government work out the conditions of any truce. We will get in the way and our support and participation would be counter-productive. The path forward and integration must be by the Afghans not the Pentagon or State Department. This is a diplomatic process and must be advised by those that understand the realpolitik, and not a group of idealists.

The other aspect of this is time. Realistically, this will take a long time and in the interim it will be business as usual. Every scar of the last 17 years and the previous decades will be up for examination as we continue fighting and creating more wounds and scars.

"It's our responsibility and our duty to pursue a diplomatic solution to this conflict and the way things have evolved in the last year or so, it's clear there is an opportunity. It's our responsibility to seize it," said Ambassador Raphel. "We can't stand by and let it pass, considering the number of Afghans, Americans and others who have died in this war."

But, that said, we cannot factor out the wider region, and that includes Pakistan, Iran, India, China, and Russia. While we have been fighting, these other countries have been working the long-term issues of resources, transportation connectivity, and infrastructure while staying away from the fight. It seems the U.S. does not care much about the region, but such issues will become priorities in any truce.

Outside intervention has not worked in Afghanistan. We must remember that the destruction of the Soviet Union was precipitated in large part by Moscow’s failed war, and failed peace, in Afghanistan. The Taliban government destroyed Afghanistan and the western approach has not fared much better.

What we need to do is let the indigenous Afghan model emerge and support this model to salvage U.S. interests in the greater region. We must remember, that due to an inconsistent policy, weak diplomacy, failed strategy, and a personality-driven operational approach we continually contradicted previous efforts. And w e must also remember that the Taliban’s desire for direct talks with the U.S. is not new. They have wanted those for a long time because they see the government in Kabul as a U.S. puppet.

It is important to understand that the Taliban are not a single cohesive organization. This will present considerable challenges and must be left to Afghans to work out. There are many fissures in the Taliban and this complicates enforcing top-down compliance at the lowest echelons. The very issue of a truce, reintegration, or reconciliation could create huge problems within the Taliban.

We must also be prepared for the reality of continued violence in Afghanistan by numerous extremist organizations, including the so-called Islamic State, but also by the forces we’re talking to. In most conflicts, combat does not end with the beginning of peace talks, and often it increases as each party maneuvers for advantage.

The current Afghan government is a coalition government and its performance maintaining security, good governance, and delivering goods and services is poor. We must ask the question what the driving reason for the Taliban is to join the Afghan government?

I question the stalemate analysis. We are not going to win in Afghanistan and we need to move forward with this reality. The Taliban has not broken its ties with Al Qaeda or other extremist groups, and now we have ISIS complicating the mix, sometimes distinct from the Taliban, sometimes not.

The Taliban know that the main driver behind the United States wanting to reach a peaceful settlement is that securing that settlement is the key to our “face saving” departure from Afghanistan. We must recognize that once we have left the Taliban, will undertake their own agenda to secure a hold on power and govern.

The bottom line is that despite the dedication and sacrifice of our service members, America’s long war in Afghanistan will not end well. Despite our senior leaders’ efforts to portray the war as an American victory, the United States is not going to defeat the Taliban, other groups, and ISIS there anytime soon.

To be successful the U.S. must put together a small team empowered to make binding decisions. There are areas (mentioned earlier) that have a relatively wide range of applicability among countries. Economic policy is the most important regional concern. To gain stabilization the team would have to develop options to use and the conditions in which they could be best applied as part of a larger confederation working to stabilize Afghanistan.</s>Kabul: Taliban militants overran large parts of an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 soldiers, wounding 15 and capturing dozens more infighting over the past two days, officials said on Tuesday.

The insurgents had captured tanks and ammunition in Chenayeeha army base, in Ghormach district of Faryab province, in an offensive that began on Sunday, according to Mohammad Tahir Rahmani, head of the provincial council. “We have not been able to enter the base. Large parts of the base are still under the Taliban control,” Rahmani said. Rahmani gave the casualty figures, but another provincial official added that the Taliban had captured 40 soldiers, but 30 militants had also been killed in the fighting.

The Taliban attack in the north coincided with clashes in the southeastern province of Ghazni, which lies on the main highway linking Kabul with the south. Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded during clashes there since last week, and hard-pressed Afghan forces received air support from US forces.

Residents who had fled the Ghazni city, the provincial capital, reported that the Taliban had cut telecommunications, electricity and water supplies, hospitals were running out medical supplies, while shops, homes and some government buildings had been destroyed.</s>KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The Latest on developments in Afghanistan after a surge in Taliban attacks (all times local):

The spokesman for the Defense Ministry in Kabul says the Taliban have overrun a military base in northern Afghanistan, killing 17 soldiers and wounding at least 19 troops.

Ghafor Ahmad Jawed says the insurgents overrun the base late on Monday night in Faryab province, in the district of Ghormach, after besieging it for three days.

The local provincial council chief, Mohammad Tahir Rahmani, says 43 troops were killed and wounded in the attack but didn't give a breakdown.

He says the Taliban attack succeeded in taking control of the base, known as Camp Chinaya, which housed about 140 Afghan troops.

Rahmani says the base fell to the Taliban after the soldiers resisted the three-day onslaught. He says they didn't get any reinforcements and ran out of ammunition, food and water.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in Faryab. He says 57 Afghan soldiers surrendered to the Taliban while 17 others were captured in battle. He says eight military Humvees were seized.

Afghan officials say security forces have pushed back the Taliban from Ghazni and are now trying to flush the insurgents from the city's outskirts.

The operations come on the fifth day after a massive Taliban attack on the provincial capital of Ghazni.

Hundreds of people have fled the fighting in Ghazni, which has killed about 100 members of the Afghan security forces and at least 20 civilians.

Nasart Rahimi, a deputy spokesman at the Interior Ministry, says security forces were searching every inch of Ghazni for Taliban fighters on Tuesday.

Abdul Karim Arghandiwal, an army media officer in southeastern Afghanistan, says military helicopters are supporting the ground forces' operations in Ghazni.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denies the insurgents have been routed from Ghazni and says sporadic gunbattles are still ongoing.

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>Taliban fighters overran a northern Afghan army base, officials said Tuesday, killing at least 14 soldiers with dozens feared captured and others said to have fled in the latest blow to the country's security forces.

Militants gained control of the base in Ghormach district of volatile Faryab province after days of heavy fighting, according to army spokesman for northern Afghanistan Mohammad Hanif Rezaee, adding that 100 soldiers were on the base when it was first attacked Sunday.

"It is a tragedy that the base fell to the enemy. Some soldiers were killed, some captured and some fled to nearby hills," Rezaee told AFP.

Faryab MP Hashim Otaq said that 14 soldiers were killed and about 40 others were captured by Taliban fighters in the base, known as Chenaya.

The Taliban victory in Faryab comes days after militants launched a brazen attack on the southeastern Afghan city of Ghazni late Thursday, some two hours drive from the capital Kabul.

Tahir Rehmani -- head of Faryab's provincial council -- said the base fell after the soldiers begged for reinforcements and air support from Kabul but were ultimately ignored.

"They were too busy with Ghazni," said Rehmani.

Afghan security forces, beset by killings, desertions and under intense pressure, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

The attack on Ghazni is the largest tactical onslaught by the Taliban since an unprecedented truce in June brought fighting between security forces and the Taliban to a brief stop, providing battle-worn Afghans some welcome relief.

The city remains in government hands, officials have said, but the insurgents appeared entrenched there Tuesday, according to residents who said they were burning buildings, killing civilians and firing on security forces conducting a clearing operation.</s>Taliban fighters overran a northern Afghan army base, officials said Tuesday, killing at least 14 soldiers with dozens feared captured and others said to have fled in the latest blow to the country's security forces.

Militants gained control of the base in Ghormach district of volatile Faryab province after days of heavy fighting, according to army spokesman for northern Afghanistan Mohammad Hanif Rezaee, adding that 100 soldiers were on the base when it was first attacked Sunday.

"It is a tragedy that the base fell to the enemy. Some soldiers were killed, some captured and some fled to nearby hills," Rezaee told AFP.

Faryab MP Hashim Otaq said that 14 soldiers were killed and about 40 others were captured by Taliban fighters in the base, known as Chenaya.

The Taliban victory in Faryab comes days after militants launched a brazen attack on the southeastern Afghan city of Ghazni late Thursday, some two hours drive from the capital Kabul.

Tahir Rehmani -- head of Faryab's provincial council -- said the base fell after the soldiers begged for reinforcements and air support from Kabul but were ultimately ignored.

"They were too busy with Ghazni," said Rehmani.

Afghan security forces, beset by killings, desertions and under intense pressure, have been struggling to beat back insurgents since US-led NATO troops ended their combat mission in December 2014.

The attack on Ghazni is the largest tactical onslaught by the Taliban since an unprecedented truce in June brought fighting between security forces and the Taliban to a brief stop, providing battle-worn Afghans some welcome relief.

The city remains in government hands, officials have said, but the insurgents appeared entrenched there Tuesday, according to residents who said they were burning buildings, killing civilians and firing on security forces conducting a clearing operation.</s>
• The Taliban have killed more than 200 Afghan soldiers and police officers in four different areas in the last three days.
• 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 US and Afghan governments have downplayed the Taliban assault on Ghazni, but local reports and witnesses claim the Taliban has taken much of the city, as the battle appears to still be raging on Monday.

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.

“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>KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban militants overran large parts of an army base in northern Afghanistan, killing at least 10 soldiers, wounding 15 and capturing dozens more in fighting over the past two days, officials said on Tuesday.

The insurgents had captured tanks and ammunition in Chenayeeha army base, in Ghormach district of Faryab province, in an offensive that began on Sunday, according to Mohammad Tahir Rahmani, head of the provincial council.

“We have not been able to enter the base. Large parts of the base are still under the Taliban control,” Rahmani said.

Rahmani gave the casualty figures, but another provincial official added that the Taliban had captured 40 soldiers, but 30 militants had also been killed in the fighting.

The Taliban attack in the north coincided with clashes in southeastern province of Ghazni, which lies on the main highway linking Kabul with the south.

Hundreds of people have been killed or wounded during clashes there since last week, and hard-pressed Afghan forces received air support from U.S. forces.

Residents who had fled the Ghazni city, the provincial capital, reported that the Taliban had cut telecommunications, electricity and water supplies, hospitals were running out medical supplies, while shops, homes and some government buildings had been destroyed.
The Taliban captures Camp Chenaya, an Afghan Army base in Ghormach District, Faryab Province.