KABUL, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents 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. 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. The attack on a strategic city straddling the main route between the capital Kabul and southern Afghanistan demonstrated the Taliban’s strength, underscoring how volatile the security situation remains less than three months before parliamentary elections in October. 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. “No one knows what the exact situation is because there is no communication service,” he said. A second government official said it was too dangerous for people to leave their homes and he had no immediate details on casualties. Quoting a hospital official, Afghanistan’s 1TV television reported more than 90 members of the security forces and 13 civilians had been killed, with more than 100 wounded. Ghazni police chief General Farid Ahmad Mashal said the Taliban had seized several parts of the city, which has been under threat for months with heavy fighting in surrounding districts. “There was burning and fire and dead bodies everywhere in the city,” said Abdul Wakil, a local resident who escaped told Reuters at a checkpoint into Kabul. The Taliban have so far failed to take and hold any provincial center since they overran the northern city of Kunduz in 2015 before being driven off with the support of U.S. air strikes and Special Forces units. A statement from US military headquarters in Kabul said fighting had ceased by 8am and Afghan forces had held their ground and maintained control of all government centres. “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. 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. In June, a three-day truce over the Eid al-Fitr holiday brought unprecedented scenes of unarmed Taliban fighters mingling with security forces in Kabul and other cities, offering a glimpse of peace and fuelling hopes of negotiations to end the war.
Fighting continues around the city of Ghazni.