Kunduz battle rages; 12 cops dead in south

KABUL: Fierce gunbattles raged for a second day on Tuesday in Afghanistan’s embattled northern city of Kunduz while in the country’s south, insurgents killed 12

KABUL: Fierce gunbattles raged for a second day on Tuesday in Afghanistan’s embattled northern city of Kunduz while in the country’s south, insurgents killed 12 policemen at checkpoints around the Helmand provincial capital and seized another district they had attacked a day earlier.

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The timing of the coordinated assaults was particularly poignant, coming a year after the Taliban captured and held parts of Kunduz before the city was fully liberated weeks later with the help of US airstrikes.

In the latest attack in Helmand, Taliban fighters besieged police checkpoints around the provincial capital of Lashkar Gah late on Monday night, killing 12 policemen and wounding another 11, according to Haji Gran, chief of the city’s police district 2.

Lashkah Gar has been under threat of Taliban takeover for months as insurgents have been slowly taking control of Helmand since the beginning of the year, with some officials saying that 85 percent of the province is now under Taliban control — or 12 of its 14 districts.

That includes Khanashin district in the south of the province, which the provincial spokesman, Omar Zwak, said had fallen to the Taliban after coming under attack Monday. In recent days, he said, around 45 members of Afghan security forces have been killed in fighting there.