AGENCIES
The Taliban have launched a new large-scale attack on one of Afghanistan’s main cities, Kunduz, and taken hospital patients as hostages.
Presidential spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said, Afghan security forces are repelling the attack in parts of the city. A Defence Ministry spokesman asserted that 26 Taliban fighters have been killed in an airstrike.
Taliban have continued bloody assaults on civilians and security forces even as their leaders meet with a US peace envoy in Qatar to negotiate an end to nearly 18 years of war.