Afghanistan's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that government forces had launched a counterattack to retake the strategic northern city of Kunduz from Taliban militants who had captured it on Monday.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it had carried out an airstrike on the city "in order to eliminate a threat to the force," in the words of U.S. and NATO missions spokesman Col. Brian Tribus. The Associated Press reported that did not elaborate if more airstrikes would follow. The AP also noted that there were no U.S. or NATO troops in Kunduz at the time of the airstrike.
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Sarwar Hussaini, a provincial police spokesman, told the Associated Press Afghan forces had launched an operation on several fronts around Kunduz to try and retake the city of approximately 300,000 people. The Defense Ministry vowed in a statement to Reuters that the city would soon be retaken. Reuters reported that government forces had spent the night holed up at Kunduz's airport after being driven out of the city itself the day before.
The Defense Ministry claimed that the city's prison and the provincial police headquarters had been retaken. That claim could not independently be verified as the city was off limits to media.
An Afghan government official in the city told Reuters that there was heavy fighting in the city and said most residents were without electricity and phone service. Residents reached over the phone by The Associated Press said sporadic gunfire could still be heard around the city on Tuesday morning.
The city fell Monday, after hundreds of Taliban gunmen launched a coordinated, multi-pronged attack at several points around the city. After a day of fierce fighting, they managed to overrun government buildings and hoisted their flag in the city square. The fast-moving assault took the military and intelligence authorities by surprise.
During the Taliban assault on the city on Monday, the insurgents had freed around 600 inmates -- including 144 members of the Taliban -- from Kunduz prison, officials said.
In Kabul, the National Security Council was to meet later Tuesday over the fall of Kunduz, a government official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss government plans.
After taking the city Monday, Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour issued a statement aimed at calming the city's residents and calling on the Afghan government to admit defeat.
"These conquests are result of almighty Allah's support and the mujahideen (fighters) sacrifices. Therefore, officials in Kabul have to admit their defeat with courage," the statement said. "Kunduz residents should not be worried about their lives and property. They should continue as normal without any tension
The International Red Cross said it had evacuated two of its three international staff from Kunduz, flying them to the nearby city of Mazar-I-Sharif. The U.N. office in Kunduz was also evacuated.
The city's fall comes as President Ashraf Ghani marks one year in office. The president, who has staked his presidency on pledges of bringing peace to Afghanistan and who seeks to draw the Taliban to peace talks, was to address the nation later Tuesday.
Kunduz is one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Afghanistan, and the surrounding province, also called Kunduz, is one of the country's chief breadbaskets. It lies on a strategic crossroads connecting Afghanistan to Pakistan, China and Central Asia.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
With the recent defeat of the city of Kunduz in Afghanistan, President Ashraf Ghani should be making considerable changes in his governing style. If the Taliban is able to take over one of the largest and wealthiest cities in Afghanistan they can take over almost anything. The new president should be considering his actions very carefully so as to not hurt any of his civilians and militants. Because of his failure to protect his city, Kunduz is now taken over by the Taliban which can now easily take over neighboring countries due to its strategic crossroad connecting to Pakistan, China, and Central Asia.
ReplyDeleteThe president of Afghanistan needs to be more careful. He needs to not hurt people. He needs to be making equal decisions for everyone. They can take down pretty much any part of Afghanistan so they need to be careful. The president needs to take his time and decide equally.
ReplyDeleteRichard Hull period 2
DeleteWith the city of Kunduz taken over President Ashraf ghani is going to need to make some adjustments within his military and government. They either need to come to some sort of deal with the Taliban or seek plenty of help from another country with a solid military. Mullah Akhtar Mansour said,"These conquests are result of almighty Allah's support and the mujahideen (fighters) sacrifices. Therefore, officials in Kabul have to admit their defeat with courage." They are going to have to close some sort of deal with the Taliban or else they risk up to 300,000 innocent live. I hope that they can come to a safe conclusion.
ReplyDeleteI think that violence is not the answer. With retaking the city that contains "approximately 300,000 people"(Fox News). Although they are letting the people not change and keep there property and act like normal, there are still probably going to be some changes. Also, people have to watch out for the Taliban because if they can take over one of the largest cities in Afghanistan then they can take over many cities all over the world. Overall I think that they should really make sure that they have good protection so they can defend against some of these groups that are trying to take over so many different cities.
ReplyDeleteCourtney Hulsing
Period 2
Paragraph 6 states "After a day of fierce fighting, they managed to overrun government buildings and hoisted their flag in the city square." Afghanistan defensive ministry is going to need to try to make some sort of deal as well as begging to strengthen their army. Its a huge concern that the Taliban can take over a city. Extra troops should be put in to Afghanistan cities until the issue is under control.
ReplyDeleteZayne Beckman Period: 5
Retaking a city with "approximately 300,000 people” is risky (Fox News). Afghanistan needs to make a plan to strengthen their army. If the Taliban can take over the city, they need to seriously consider better training their military. More troops can be admitted into Afghanistan to help while they resolve this conflict. The civilians can live their lives normally. Who knows what the Taliban are capable of, so every one should be on high alert.
ReplyDeleteOlivia Lasecke Period 2
I believe that Afghanistan needs to make their military bigger and stronger before they try anything. Their military is going to need serious training if they are going to want to take down the Taliban. Who knows what the Taliban is capable of. They are ruthless.
ReplyDeleteI think that the president of Afghanistan needs to be more careful with the weapons that he has. He needs to be making equal decisions for everyone. With the power that they have they can pretty much take down any part of Afghanistan if they wanted to, so I think they need to be more careful with the power that they have. The president needs to take his time and decide equally.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what many people are stating, the government should work to strengthen their law enforcement before they go after the Taliban. The Taliban has and is capable of many thing, most of which are terrible. If the government put more money towards there police and military, the Taliban would not have such an influence on the society. So if Afghanistan puts more money towards training their military, the Taliban would not be such an issue.
ReplyDeleteI believe that with the government being taken over president Ashraf ghani needs to make a deal with the taliban. If the deal dosent go down as well as they hoped, american forces should come in and destroy the taliban, the only reason america should go in is because the taliban is a terroist threat. if they succeed in afhganistan then they could move in to other countries.
ReplyDeleteI do believe that, that country should be taking control, and enforcing justice by themselves, and without the aid of another country. Their military needs to get stronger, to fight off the Taliban. They need to have a stronger police force to enforce the laws on citizens, and have an investigation team. If Afghanistan puts more money into the military, it will greatly benefit the country.
ReplyDeleteMuzamil Ahmad p.6
When Afghan government and the Reuters were speaking they should of figured something out about the violence. People were without electricity for awhile and that makes it even more dangerous. On Monday when everything went down, it does not seem like a city anymore with all the shootings, overrunning governments, and assault, its more of the end of the world of what was going down on Monday.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what most people are saying that the government should work towards strengthen their law enforcement and military. I also agree with Alayna that they should've figured out a way to do this without violence. The innocent civilians living in Afghanistan are being put through shootings, assault, bombs, and corruptions they don't deserve to be put through.
ReplyDeleteThe reconquering of Kunduz is an essential tactical move in the fight against Taliban. I do believe that the retaking of the prison and police headquarters is a good step. "The Defense Ministry claimed that the city's prison and the provincial police headquarters had been retaken" (Fox News). However, I respectfully but firmly disagree with the U.S.'s intervention in this fight. As mentioned in the article, the Afghani President stated that he would bring peace to Afghanistan and seeks to draw the Taliban to peace talks. This being said, I believe the fight should be addressed by the Afghanis.
ReplyDeleteJonPaul Lambert Period 1
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ReplyDeleteI also agree with what everybody else said about hoe Afghanistan needs to strength there government and military. No Taliban's should be able to take over a city and release over 600 intimates. They need to get on it as soon as possible so that way none of 300,00 civilizations get hurt. I hope that they can solve this soon and no one gets hurt.
ReplyDeleteChristian Hudson Period 2
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DeleteViolence is never the answer to anything. It is Ashraf Ghani, Afganistan job to make his country's military and government stronger. He needs to protect his people and make sure the country doesn't get worse. Taliban has already taken over Afganistan's largest city. Nothing is stopping Taliban taking over another city, another country. A strong military and government will stop Taliban from taking over more countries.
ReplyDelete- Sheila Ordukhani per2
I do not think that we should put U.S troops on the ground, but I know that we need a full-fledged war from the air. I do not want casualties on the ground because we technically aren't at war with ISIS or the Taliban even though we are enemies. We need to contribute more with more airstrikes to help the afghan troops "in order to eliminate a threat to the force" (Col. Brian Tribus). Once the taliban and ISIS get enough power they will soon come for us.
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ReplyDeleteSince, "the city's fall comes as President Ashraf Ghani marks one year in office," (Fox News) the president should probably change up his strategy for achieving his goal of "bringing peace to Afghanistan and who seeks to draw the Taliban to peace talks" (Fox News). It is interesting how such a relatively small group was able to take one of the country's most prominent cities. You would think that the armed forces and the government would have just so much more man power to stop them. I wonder why the leader of the Taliban was making the leaders admit defeat. Is that a cultural thing or is it for his religion or ego or something else?
ReplyDeleteBailey Smith Period 1
I think that the Afghan government should have been a little bit more strategic for achieving their goal. What I find the most interesting is that a small group overtook such a big city and that they couldn't stop it immediately. It shocks and scares me that something like this happened in a huge city. This makes me raise the question that could something like this happen to some place in the United States? It is just weird that the government has so much military force yet they had to strategically plan to get the Taliban out of the city. Ryan Brown Period 2
ReplyDeleteI think it is ridiculous that the Taliban can just waltz their way into such a huge city and just take it over. Their government needs to do something, this war has been going on for too long. I'm even more upset that they got 600 people out of prison and 144 of them were Taliban. How does this happen?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Parker is right when he says, "it is ridiculous that the Taliban can just waltz in to the city." This should not happen, especially to a government military. Also the fact that they said that, "the fast-moving assault took the military and intelligence authorities by surprise" is also ridiculous. An active military should not be taken by surprise especially in a high tension zone like they're in.
DeleteAfghan needs to gain control of their government before more inmates are released. The taliban can't come into a big city and start ruling the country. they need a military to wipe the taliban out and regain control of the government and country. Austin James p.2
ReplyDeleteAfter reading through this article, I strongly believe that the Preesident of Afghanistan needs to instigate some extreme secutiry protocols and precautions because the fact that the Talkban even have the ability to take over one of, if not the most powerful, city in Afghanistan is beyond unacceptable. If they can control Kunduz, surely in the future they can take anything. Then of course, perhaps that's the idea.
ReplyDeleteSydney Rose Andrews per.6
I think that the president of Kunduz should make smarter defense to protect his city. They now should put a lot of security around the city and he should ask his fellow countries for some help to protect them. And i think it is terrible that they attack them out of no where.
ReplyDelete~Kyle Haroldsen P.4
I believe that the current afghan president is doing a poor job of protecting his peoples. I say this because even with american support from the NATO airstrikes Ashraf Ghani is still incapable of keeping terrorist out of even their biggest cities. Even causing citizens to become without water and phone service along with even being victim to terrorist attacks. So if Ashraf Ghani plans to continue as the president of Afghanistan he must change his approaches to these situations.
ReplyDeleteAs a huge fan of the US military and hater of terrorism i support the airstrikes. The military has been held back too much they were trained to kill the enemy so let them do that. All these middle eastern countries have terrible government and can't hold down their cities from being taken by terrorists so let america come in and set things straight. But if we send our troops in which i think isn't a great idea right now then we shouldn't hold them back let them do what they do best. Kill the terrorists.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Clarke
I think that the president in Afghan is doing a terrible job on defending his people. I support the air strikes that the US military has and I think they should train to defend the country. I believe that our nation's military should defeat the terrorists and should not wait until it is too late. But Afghan needs to protect their people and should set up a security. It is a waste in their country's support and civilization.
ReplyDeleteMatt Hodgson
The Taliban has regained popularity and support because the Afghan government is viewed as corrupt by the citizens. Meanwhile air strikes from the US and Russia are breaking down the large activist threats.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion I think the Afghan president isn't doing his job. His job is to protect and defend the people and he's not doing that. I think the air strikes from the US Military has is how they should train their people to defend their country because it isn't the US job to do the Afghans for them. They should stop the terrorists before it is too late.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the president is doing his job. He needs to protect the people of his country. It shouldn't be up to the US to defend his country. He needs to learn how to train the people of his country to be ready for anything.
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ReplyDeleteSending in airstrikes was a lot smarter on the US's part because sending in ground troops would have caused twice as many casualties on both sides. Currently the president of Afghanistan is not doing his part in protecting the people. Instead of staying while his people needed him, he fled like a coward and left his people to fend for themselves. This article states,"The president, who has staked his presidency on pledges of bringing peace to Afghanistan and who seeks to draw the Taliban to peace talks, was to address the nation later Tuesday." He has to realize that there is no way to find peace with these terrorists. He has to take out the Taliban instead of paying them off and if he does decide to pay them off it will backfire and the death toll will keep racking up.
ReplyDeleteI thought presidents were supposed to be good leaders but apparently the president of Afghanistan doesn't know how to lead a country properly and protect his people. Instead he had to get the united states to help him out when he probably could have done something himself to solve HIS problem.
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ReplyDeleteAfganhistan's president needs to be a better leader and get his country under control. at this pace it is going to be taken over and rule by someone else.
ReplyDeleteAustin James p.2
the president of Afghanistan should clean up his act because there are real problems happening right now. if he does not clean up his act then bad Hingis will happen
ReplyDeleteperiod 2
DeleteAfter reading the article on smog in the U.S., I really thought about two things. First I thought about the environment. The smog is so bad for the natural chemicals in the air which effects all aspects of life on Earth. This made me think about the plants and animals around the world. This has and will effect the plants of the world which will then effect the animals. In conclusion, if this continues, there will be a huge concern for extinction of life and the atmosphere.
ReplyDeletePeriod 1
DeleteAfter reading the article about gun control in America, I noticed the repetition of occurrences in shooting and other attack involving guns around schools. This just makes me furious and a little bit uneasy with the school setting nowadays. Knowing that anybody with a gun can walk on campus and basically control the school terrifies me and I'm sure others as well. We need to do something about this fast because this is a huge loophole that needs patching up before it's too late.
ReplyDeletePeriod 1
DeleteThe Afghanistan president is not doing his job. This president needs to get his stuff together and help out more. The things he is doing isn't helping anyone or anything he just needs to fix himself.
ReplyDeleteI think that the Afghan government should have been a little bit more strategic for achieving their goal. What I find the most interesting is that a small group overtook such a big city and that they couldn't stop it immediately. It shocks and scares me that something like this happened in a huge city. This makes me raise the question that could something like this happen to some place in the United States? It is just weird that the government has so much military force yet they had to strategically plan to get the Taliban out of the city.
ReplyDelete