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Taliban Flag Flies Over Captured Afghan City

CBN

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The U.S. military has launched an airstrike on Kunduz, Afghanistan, which has been captured by the Taliban.

The Afghan city fell to the Taliban on Monday after an attack involving hundreds of fighters. It's the first time a major urban area has been seized by the Taliban since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

The Taliban tried to overtake Kunduz earlier this year and succeeded in capturing part of the city's suburbs.

"This (recent attack) was on a much larger scale. And it also seems to be in a multipronged attack which shows that the Taliban, after a number of setbacks, is still capable of mounting coordinated and very big assaults," NPR's Philip Reeves reported.

Insurgents overran government buildings and raised their flag in the city square.

President Ashraf Ghani vowed to take the northern city back from the insurgents.

"The enemy has sustained heavy casualties," he said, urging his nation to trust Afghan troops to do the job.

Meanwhile, Taliban gunmen patrolled city streets Tuesday, setting up checkpoints and searching for government loyalists. They cut off exit routes for anyone who wished to escape.

The international charity Doctors Without Borders said its trauma center in Kunduz received 129 wounded since early Monday morning, including 20 women and 39 children.

The fall of Kunduz marks a major loss for the Afghan government as it struggles to combat the Taliban without the aid of U.S. and NATO combat troops.

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