KABUL, Afghanistan — In a day of intensifying violence across Afghanistan, the country’s security forces bombed a clinic in the northern province of Kunduz on Tuesday in their efforts to thwart another coordinated run by the Taliban on the provincial capital that the militants have twice overrun and continue to besiege.
The conflict is back into full-fledged bloodletting after a brief period of hope that a deal between the United States and the Taliban in February would open the way for negotiations between the two Afghan sides. But the Taliban have ignored what U.S. officials describe as an understanding that they would reduce violence by up to 80 percent in the prelude to negotiations over a future power-sharing agreement. Fighting was reported in 20 of the country’s 34 provinces over the past 24 hours, a senior Afghan official said.
After a series of bloody attacks in recent weeks, President Ashraf Ghani of Afghanistan last week ordered his forces, which had remained on “active defense,” to go back on offense.
The change of posture has given the Taliban the excuse to do away with any pretense of restraint and further ramp up attacks, particularly around cities they had largely avoided in recent months. With the deal constraining how much support the United States can offer the Afghan government in offensive operations against the militants, the security forces are limited in how much they can do.
Insurgents attacked the security belt around the city of Kunduz from several directions overnight, assaulting at least 17 outposts and bases of the Afghan forces, said Lt. Col. Mashooq Kohistani, commander of an Afghan Army battalion in Kunduz. Colonel Kohistani said that all the attacks had been fended off, except for fighting that was continuing in one suburb of the city. At least six Afghan soldiers have been killed, he said.
Ihsanullah Fazli, the provincial director of health in Kunduz, said that the clinic in the district of Chardara had been bombed and that several parts of it, including its ambulances, had been destroyed.
“We have some wounded among our personnel and patients, but we do not have any deaths,” Mr. Fazli said.
Abdul Wali, a nurse at the clinic who sustained wounds in his legs and arms, said there about 50 people had been at the clinic at the time of the bombing.
“The Taliban brought their fighters for treatment, but there were civilians there, too,” Mr. Wali said. “The doors, the guardrooms, were struck. Our emergency section is destroyed.”
Mr. Wali and others who were wounded were taken to the main regional hospital in Kunduz, a city that has been overwhelmed by the spread of the coronavirus. Dozens of hospital staff members have been quarantined.
Dr. Naim Mangal, the head of the regional hospital, said that three dead and 48 wounded had been admitted after the day’s fighting.
Fawad Aman, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, denied that a clinic had been struck. Mr. Aman said that the Taliban’s assault on the city had been defeated and that 40 insurgent fighters had been killed.
But internal security communications in Kunduz, viewed by The New York Times, showed that A-29 attack aircraft of the Afghan Air Force had struck what the messages described as “a center for treatment of wounded Taliban in Chardara district.”
Although the area is heavily contested by the Taliban, the clinic is run by the Afghan government through an arrangement practiced in many volatile parts of the country in which a nongovernmental organization is subcontracted to provide basic services.
Dr. Majeed Mohsen, an official at Just for Afghan Capacity and Knowledge, the NGO that runs the clinic in Chardara, said the center was established 10 years ago. It had eight staff members providing basic health services, including treating war wounded offering maternity services and immunizations, and caring for malnourished children. He added that the clinic saw as many as 80 patients a day.
With violence intensifying, top American officials were in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday to meet with Taliban representatives and push them to respect the deal and negotiate with the Afghan government. Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy for Afghan peace, was accompanied on the trip by the top American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Austin S. Miller, officials said.
“In Doha, Ambassador Khalilzad will meet with Taliban representatives to discuss implementation of the U.S.-Taliban agreement and press for steps necessary to commence intra-Afghan negotiations, including a significant reduction of violence,” the U.S. State Department said.
Fahim Abed contributed reporting.
Source : Nytimes
