Sporadic clashes between special forces and insurgents ongoing in parts of western city

U.S. and Afghan aircraft on Tuesday bombed Taliban positions in the western city of Farah after the insurgents launched a major attempt to capture the provincial capital, with fearful residents seeking shelter from explosions and gunfire. The attack — the first major assault targeting a provincial capital since the Taliban announced its annual spring offensive — began when several security checkpoints were overrun after midnight, with the militants capturing one urban district and parts of another, according to provincial-council member Jamila Amini. “Our reinforcements are trying to use their capabilities to overcome the situation.”

The Ministry of Interior spokesman, Najib Danish, said the elite 444 Special Forces police unit was being deployed from Kandahar in the south. In January, NATO’s Resolute Support Mission, tasked with building up the Afghan government’s security forces, assessed that nearly 15 percent of the country’s 407 districts — more than 20 percent of the landmass — was under insurgent control or influence, according to a watchdog report released this month. “But I know the police chief might be in the front line fighting off the Taliban.”

Fareed Bakhtawar, head of the Farah provincial council, said that he was fighting with volunteers against the Taliban, but that they had taken large areas of the city. “NDS forces in their HQ are engaged in heavy clashes with the Taliban.”

Another provincial council member, Dadullah Qani, confirmed Hissaini’s comments, the sound of gunfire and explosions audible as he spoke to an AFP reporter by telephone. At least some militants have been hiding in private houses, making it difficult for Afghan forces to use heavy weapons, Farah governor Abdul Basir Salangi told Ariana News, adding: “But still we are taking back positions one by one.”

Many radio and television channels in the province have stopped broadcasting, fearing for their employees’ lives, according to media watchdog Nai. Farah province, which borders Iran, has been the scene of intense fighting in recent years, and there have long been fears that the city is vulnerable. A resurgent Taliban, largely dependent on narcotics revenues, has expanded its territorial control over parts of Afghanistan since the withdrawal of most international combat forces at the end of 2014. Kunduz, Afghanistan’s fifth largest city and capital of the northern province of the same name, fell briefly to the Taliban in 2015. “As I’m talking to you, I can hear heavy gunfire.”

Tuesday’s attack is the first assault on a provincial capital this year, but analysts and politicians say the city should have been better defended, after three similar attacks by insurgents last year.
Taliban forces claim to have taken control of the western city of Farah after two days of fighting. It is the second provincial capital to be temporarily taken over, after a similar assault on Kunduz in 2015.