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About 5,000 Afghan families have fled their homeland of Kunduz after days of fighting between Taliban and government forces, officials said on Saturday, as the last time US troops left.
Major fighting has been reported in the provinces of Kandahar and Baghlan, with Afghan forces claiming to have seized control of the Taliban-occupied territories but the army is still in some Pul-e-Khumri areas in central Baghlan, according to local media. .
The Taliban have taken over many areas since the US-led NATO foreign forces withdrew in May.
Afghanistan, which has been a hotbed of rebellion since its ouster in 2001 under US control, continues to surround Kunduz.
The Taliban have captured the city twice in recent years but have now taken control of surrounding areas and borders along with Tajikistan.
“About 5,000 families have been displaced as a result of the conflict,” Ghulam Sakhi Rasouli, director of the Kunduz Refugees and Repatriation department, told AFP.
He added that two of the two families had fled to Kabul and other parts of the country.
Many people fled to a school in the city and were given food and other necessities, said Khuluz in Kunduz district in Ghulam Rabbani district.
Videos captured by AFP showed many people, many of them women and children, sitting inside the tents set up at the school.
“We are six families living here for three days … you can see my children sitting on the ground,” said Juma Khan, who fled with his family.
“We did not receive any assistance. A team came today to search for other families but a few minutes later they left, “said Akhtar Mohammad, who also fled the school.
Another 8,000 families have been relocated to Kunduz following a month-long standoff between the military and government forces, Rasouli added.
He also said that the authorities had not been able to provide assistance to all the families who had fled their homes.
Kunduz city health chief Ehsanullah Fazli said since the clashes last week, 29 civilians had been killed and 225 injured.
War has been raging in the Kunduz region for days, with Taliban and Afghan forces taking part in bloody wars.
On Tuesday the militants captured Shir Khan Bandar, the Afghan border crossing with Tajikistan, in one of the most lucrative deals in recent months.
The Taliban have released videos showing them with U.S.-made humvees and Afghan police with weapons after seizing control of several states.
Since the beginning of May, the Taliban have launched a series of attacks on the military in the highlands and is said to have taken over 90 of the country’s 400 states.
However, much of the Taliban’s opposition to the government is difficult to prove.
May was the last time US troops withdrew from Afghanistan as part of an alliance between the Taliban and the US led by former President Donald Trump who signed the Qatari capital, Doha, in February 2020.
Trump’s successor President Joe Biden also extended the deadline to September 11, the 20th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan following the attacks in New York by Washington, DC, and al-Qaeda.
The violence erupted when U.S. forces began withdrawing the last 2,500 finalists from the country to meet the deadline set September 11 by President Biden to end the longest war in the United States.
Amid growing violence, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani traveled to Washington last week to meet with Biden, who pledged US assistance to Afghanistan but said Afghan people should choose their own future.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen told Al Jazeera in an exclusive interview that the military has a “right to aid” if the US retains troops in Afghanistan after September 11.
“Once he is here, I think I will continue to do this work. He has broken and we have the right to take action,” Shaheen said.
The February agreement also called for peace talks between Taliban and Afghan leaders but did not go well in Qatar.
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