The battle over Kunduz and its implications

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Abstract

"On 28 September 2015 the Taliban launched a major offensive in North Afghanistan resulting in the overrun of city of Kunduz. The fact that some hundred Taliban fighters were taking over a major urban centre- an area which was held by 7000 regular Afghan troops, in less than 24 hours, is not only a military debacle for the Afghanistan National Security Forces (ANSF) but also an embarrassment for the provincial authorities. For it represents the greatest success of the Taliban in an open battlefield marked by an extraordinary ‘propaganda coup’. The fact that the temporary fallout of Kunduz coincided with the first anniversary of the Presidency Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and its joint government with Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah underpins the political paramountcy and dramatic exposure of the security dimension of Afghanistan. Subsequently, the Afghan Army with support of the special NATO forces comprising US, British and German troops readily took to regain control over Afghanistan’s sixth biggest city consisting of 300,000 inhabitants. (...)".