Afghanistan’s parliamentarians returned to work Tuesday following Monday’s Taliban attack on parliament.
President Ashraf Ghani’s government has drawn criticism for failing to end growing insurgent attacks, which critics partly blame on political infighting and a lengthy delay in appointing a defence minister. Gunmen then attempted to storm the compound but were pushed back by security forces and eventually corralled into a nearby building that was under construction.
Members of parliament said they needed to continue their work, but that neither the country nor representatives felt safe.
The Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted, “Several mujahideen have entered the parliament building, and heavy fighting is ongoing”.
Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations envoy for Afghanistan, said Afghanistan is meeting its security challenges “but it is nonetheless being increasingly tested”.
The insurgents have also been advancing across the country’s north, capturing two districts of the Kunduz province in as many days.
The government also estimates “there may be hundreds or thousands of people” operating under the black flag of the Islamic State, including some “extreme-oriented Taliban”, he said. He said the assault showed the “capability of the mujahedeen, who can even attack the parliament in the capital”. Ultimately, the attacks concluded, killing the six gunmen.
In 2013 the presidential palace was hit, and the USA embassy has been attacked several times, notably in 2011 when nine people were killed and 27 wounded in coordinated strikes on the embassy and other targets.
He said around 150,000 residents of the district were unable to leave.
However a neighbouring district in the same province, Dasht-e-Archi, remains in rebel hands a day after they took it.
“They are many foreign fighters with heavy machine guns”.
Afghan forces on Tuesday recaptured a key district close to the northern city of Kunduz, repelling Taliban fighters who had threatened to overrun their first provincial capital since being toppled from power in 2001. “We have asked for reinforcements, but none arrived”.
Afghan soldiers were preparing a counterattack to retake both districts, another local official said.
