Food was running short as forces in Afghanistan battled Taliban militants for a third day in Kunduz yesterday, residents said, with scores fleeing the strategic Afghan city fearing more violence.
Taliban militants on Monday launched an attack in the northeastern city of Kunduz, briefly hoisting their flag at the main intersection, according to witnesses, before Afghan forces backed by Nato drove them into the outskirts.
Since late Monday Afghan forces have been conducting a careful clearing operation, with officials warning that the militants may be hiding in civilian homes as fighting continued around the city’s edges.
“We are facing a shortage of food in the city. The prices are skyrocketing. A loaf of bread that cost 15 Afghanis ($0.22) is now 40 Afghanis ($0.60),” a resident, Khalid, said.
“People have to wait in queues for hours behind bakeries to buy bread,” he said.
Frightened citizens were still trying to flee amid unconfirmed reports the militants were building up their presence once more.
“Almost all the people in the city want to leave. I have been trying to find transportation for hours today, but all cars are full,” Nasirullah, waiting in the bus station with his family of five, said.
Khairuddin, a teacher in the city, said schools, universities and other private and public institutions were shut and residents were left without electricity as the main power station had been destroyed by militants.
“The few shops that are open are running out of food items. We don’t know when the government is going to begin their clearance operation to push them (Taliban) completely out of the town,” he said.
The main roads to the city are also cut off, he said.
But Mahmood Danish, spokesman to the Kunduz governor, said Afghan forces were moving slowly for fear of civilian casualties.
“We have not launched the major clearance operation yet, because the enemies are hiding in people’s houses. But soon we will drive all of them out the city.”
As the fighting continued yesterday, two rockets hit the main city hospital late in the day, though they did not cause any casualties, provincial health director Abdul Hamid Alam said.
“We don’t know which side fired the rockets, but fortunately there is no casualty, and the hospital is open and 
operational,” he said.
Meanwhile in Kabul an explosion late yesterday targeted a bus carrying government employees, wounding four people, 
according to the interior ministry.
After seizing Kunduz last September, the Taliban held the city for two days then withdrew from the outskirts on October 15.
A US air strike during the fighting hit a hospital operated by Medecins Sans Frontieres on October 3, killing 42 people.
The organisation, which has not since relaunched its operations in Kunduz, had planned to mark the anniversary on Monday by sending its country representative Guilhem Molinie and international president Meinie Nicolai to the city.