U.S. troops dispatched to Kunduz to help Afghan forces - washingtonpost

KABUL — American Special Operations troops and on-the-ground military advisers from the NATO coalition joined Afghan forces trying to retake the northern city of Kunduz from Taliban militants Wednesday, and some came under fire as the effort made few gains, officials said.

Troops from the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan were on a mission near Kunduz airport, where hundreds of Afghan fighters gathered after retreating from the city, when they were engaged by insurgents and called in an airstrike, the officials said. The coalition spokesmen declined to comment on whether their forces returned fire on the ground.

The increased support from the coalition comes amid growing signs that Afghan forces are struggling to repel the Taliban fighters, who were able to seize Kunduz in a lightning strike Monday, dealing a major blow to Afghanistan’s Western-backed government.

An Afghan security official in Kabul said a fort fell to the Taliban in Wednesday’s fighting in Kunduz and that an estimated 50 troops based at the fort had either surrendered or were captured.  “We did not expect this at all,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. 

Kunduz, Afghanistan’s sixth-largest city and a strategic gateway to Central Asia, is the first provincial capital to fall to the Taliban since 2001, when the group began an insurgency after being driven from power in Kabul. - Read More 

U.S. troops dispatched to Kunduz to help Afghan forces

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