“Heavy fighting continues inside the city and aircraft have just started bombarding Taliban positions,” she told AFP earlier Tuesday from inside Farah. Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish said the Afghan air force was also taking part in the fighting. “NDS forces in their HQ are engaged in heavy clashes with the Taliban.” Another provincial council member, Dadullah Qani, confirmed Hissaini’s comments. The Taliban are stepping up their spring offensive, in an apparent rejection of a peace talks overture from the government. Kunduz, Afghanistan’s fifth largest city and capital of the northern province of the same name, fell briefly to the Taliban in 2015.

Source: Hindustan Times May 15, 2018 12:56 UTC