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 Adopting new tactics, Taliban fighters have been firing at
security forces at checkpoints and then melting away into
residential areas, rather than directly engaging in gun battles,
said Hamdullah Danishi, acting governor of the northern city.
"This is a new policy for the Taliban," said Danishi. "They want to
create fear among residents so they cannot resume their normal
lives."
The failure of U.S.-trained Afghan troops and police to swiftly
recapture Kunduz is an ominous sign for the government of President
Ashraf Ghani and the administration in Washington.
It underscores concerns about national forces' ability to protect
the country when most of the remaining foreign troops leave.
Already NATO forces are a small fraction of their peak, now that
their formal combat mission has ended, and U.S. President Barack
Obama is reassessing the timetable for a final drawdown which
currently envisages removing all but a few U.S. soldiers by the end
of 2016.
 Battles have raged around Kunduz for the last nine days as
government forces, backed by U.S. air strikes, have tried to drive
out Taliban fighters. Its brief capture was one of the Islamist
militants' biggest victories in the 14-year insurgency.
The city of 300,000, which was the last stronghold of the Taliban
before the group's ouster in 2001, holds symbolic importance to the
insurgency and has come under threat multiple times this year.
Security forces reported significant progress in trying to retake
Kunduz on Monday, and some shops in the center opened for the first
time since it fell to Taliban fighters. But clashes broke out
again on Tuesday, said Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, a spokesman for Kunduz
police."There are sporadic shootings in some areas," he
said.Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said on
Tuesday morning that their fighters had surrounded the police
headquarters and governor's compound in Kunduz, a claim which was
rejected by local officials.
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At least 55 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in
sometimes fierce fighting that marks an escalation in the Taliban's
campaign to topple the Western-backed government in Kabul and
reintroduce their harsh interpretation of Islamic law.
In the capital, police said at three Taliban fighters were killed
and seven policemen wounded in a 10-hour gun battle that began late
on Monday after insurgents attacked a residential area close to the
Russian embassy.
The Taliban claimed responsibility, saying it was a suicide attack
against an intelligence center in Kabul.
An Afghan security source said two gunmen had attacked the house of
a tribal elder in Kabul and an adjacent building belonging to a
former governor of the southern Helmand province.
(Writing by Andrew Macaskill)
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