THE fortnight long capture and occupation of the northern Afghan city of Kunduz by the Taliban has further exposed the frailty of the central government in Kabul. Kunduz is the fifth largest city in Afghanistan with a population of more than 300,000. The Taliban in a surprise attack had caught the Afghan security forces, trained and equipped by the West, apparently by surprise. On September 28, a few hundred Taliban fighters attacked the city from different directions and quickly captured the city. According to reports, they had many supporters who had infiltrated into the city. The 7000 strong Afghan security force, caught by surprise, fled the city leaving their weaponry behind. One of the first things the Taliban did was to empty the city's two prisons. 600 prisoners were set free among them 144 Taliban fighters. Kunduz became the first major Afghan city to be recaptured, albeit briefly, by the Taliban after they were ousted from power in 2001, following the American invasion of Afghanistan. The city is strategically located on the crossroads to Central Asia and China. The battle for Kunduz was one of the bloodiest witnessed during the 2001 American led military campaign. Thousands of Taliban fighters had perished in the fight, many of them tragically after they were captured and herded into containers by militias under the control of Afghan warlords like Rashid Dostum. The Taliban announced on October 13, that they were withdrawing from Kunduz, stating that holding on to the city was “an unnecessary waste of ammunition”. The Taliban statement said that it was in its “best military interest to fortify the trenches surrounding the city rather than keeping the city”. American military observers have said that the Taliban fought as a disciplined force in Kunduz. They were adept at using the captured American supplied armored vehicles and high tech sniper equipment. Much of the rural area in Kunduz province has been under the control of the Taliban since the beginning of the year. INTENSIVE AERIAL BOMBING The Taliban had retreated from Kunduz city after intensive aerial bombing by the US air force and the participation of American special forces on the ground. The Taliban has said that it would be focusing on taking over other cities. There is already considerable Taliban pressure on Ghazni city. The Taliban have surrounded the area disrupting vehicular traffic on the highway. Pul-i-Khumri to the south and Badakshan province are also under serious military threat from the Taliban. Taliban attacks have become frequent in Faryab province in north-eastern Afghanistan along with Helmand and Oruzgan provinces in the south. Many of the civilians from these parts are fleeing to safer places. The UN has recently closed four of its thirteen regional offices in the country citing security concerns. The world body has classified half of the country's districts under the “high risk” and “extremely risky” category for the first time since 2001. Civilians are continuing to leave Kunduz fearing for their safety. It is the only city in the northern part of the country that has a majority Pashtun population. There is a fear that the government forces, comprising mainly of non-Pashtun conscripts, may blame the Pashtun population for their military debacle and exact revenge. The Taliban derives most of its support from the Pashtun population which accounts for more than 40 percent of the country's population. The data provided by the UN however shows that the Taliban influence has spread to non-Pashtun areas that were once the stronghold of the Northern Alliance. The situation on the ground in Afghanistan did not tally with the US military's comparatively optimistic assessment. Gen. John F Campbell, the American military commander in Afghanistan had told the US Congress in the first week of October that the Afghan government is in control of all the provincial capitals, the district centers and the main Highway One. Campbell is known to be very influential in Kabul where he is known as the “de facto Defense Minister of Afghanistan”. Many of the district headquarters, according to Afghan officials themselves, are on the verge of falling to the Taliban. Parts of the main highway connecting Kabul to other cities have been coming under constant attack from the Taliban. Haroun Mir, the head of the Center for Research and Policy Studies in Kabul, told an American newspaper that “what happened in Kunduz can happen anywhere. It can even happen in a city like Kabul”. The latest UN report on Afghanistan concluded that civilians continue to suffer the most as the decades long conflict in the country drags on. The UN said that the civilian casualties in the first half of this year could exceed the “record high numbers recorded last year”. The UN explained that the high death toll this year was “caused by pro-government forces during ground operations”. ATTACK ON A HOSPITAL Most of the civilian casualties during the fight for Kunduz were the result of the American attack on the hospital run by the organisation – Doctors without Borders (MSF). 22 staff members and patients were killed when the hospital was specifically targeted by a US AC-130 Gunship. The main hospital building was completely destroyed. The hospital had given its coordinates to the American military before the attack on Kunduz had started. “Our patients burned in their beds, MSF doctors, nurses and other staff were killed as they worked”, the MSF chief Joanne Liu said. American and Afghan authorities had initially claimed that the Taliban was fighting from inside the hospital premises. American President Barack Obama had to give an unprecedented apology for the unprovoked attack on the hospital. President Obama while offering his “heartfelt apologies” did not give any excuses for the attack on the hospital. He called it a “terrible, tragic accident”. Gen. Campbell in his testimony to the US Senate admitted that American special forces in the vicinity of Kunduz city were in direct contact with the aircraft that was bombing the hospital. The MSF wants an independent international inquiry into the incident noting that Gen. Campbell's statement was an “admission of war crime”. Doctors without Borders, which had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for its humanitarian work, has since closed its operations and withdrawn permanently from Kunduz. But despite the presidential apology, the American military has once again resurrected the story that the hospital was a Taliban “command and control” center operated by a Pakistani ISI point man. American intelligence officials have not given any evidence so far to back up their allegations. The hospital had treated many wounded Taliban fighters along with the civilians injured in the fight for Kunduz. The US military has been involved in similar incidents before. During the first Gulf War in 1991, a factory producing milk powder for infants was bombed. Washington had claimed that the factory situated on the outskirts of Baghdad was in fact a biological weapons factory. The CIA later admitted that the bombing of the factory was a “mistake”. In the same war, the US targeted an air raid shelter in Baghdad, killing 408 civilians. In retaliation for the terror attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the Clinton administration ordered the bombing of the “al Shifa” pharmaceutical factory in Khartoum, Sudan. It was the only factory manufacturing essential life saving drugs in the country. Sudan's crime was that it once allowed Osama bin Laden to live briefly in the country. During the 1999 NATO war on Yugoslavia, American planes targeted a passenger train that was crossing a bridge and a major broadcasting station in Belgrade. Only civilians were killed in both the attacks. During the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, the offices of al Jazeera network in Kabul and Baghdad were bombed by American planes. In those days, unlike now, the network was known for providing credible news. As American troops were nearing Baghdad, the Palestine Hotel housing journalists was targeted. Two journalists were killed when an American tank fired a shell on the 15th floor of the hotel. In Afghanistan itself, there have been other instances where civilians have been needlessly targeted. 1700 Afghans have been killed by airstrikes since 2008. In July, 2008, an American air strike killed 47, most of them women and children, who were part of a wedding party in Nangahar province. In November the same year, another 37 people, on a trip to attend a wedding were killed in an air strike. In May 2009, an American B-1 bomber flattened a village called Granai near Herat, killing around a hundred people. Kunduz therefore was not an aberration and should not be viewed in isolation. Documents published by the investigative website, The Intercept, in mid October reveal that the drone strikes conducted by the Americans in Afghanistan between 2011 and 2013 killed 35 “suspects” along with 219 civilians the Pentagon labeled as “enemy killed in action”. On October 15, President Obama formally extended the duration of the American military presence in Afghanistan. He announced that thousands of American troops will stay there beyond 2017. The American President had announced with much fanfare in 2014 that US troops would cease to be involved in combat by the end of this year and that the military presence in the country would be reduced to a “mere residue force” by the end of 2016. Obama had assumed the presidency pledging to bring all the American troops involved in the wars started by his predecessor back home before he leaves office at the end of next year. After the capture of Kunduz by the Taliban, President Obama was quick to reassure his Afghan counterpart, Ashraf Ghani on Washington's continued commitment to the security of the country. “President Obama and President Ghani reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening the partnership between the United States and Afghanistan”, said a statement from the White House. The Taliban in a recent statement said that it was willing to reenter into negotiations with the government in Kabul provided all foreign forces leave Afghanistan. With the Americans now signaling that their occupation is not going to end any time soon the chances for a peaceful settlement of the Afghan conflict seem dimmer than ever. The Pentagon has signaled in early October that it was now planning to retain a sizable force of up to 10,000 troops till the end of 2017. The US has already spent $65 billion in the training and arming of the Afghan forces but as recent events have shown, they are incapable of confronting the Taliban and other emerging enemies like the Islamic State on their own. The swift takeover of Kunduz by the Taliban despite more than 20,000 foreign troops still on the ground in Afghanistan is an illustration.