By Hamid Shalizi

KUNDUZ, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Afghan troops recaptured the center of the strategic northern city of Kunduz on Thursday amid fierce clashes with Taliban militants, three days after losing the provincial capital in a humbling defeat for Kabul and its U.S. allies.

Fighting continued in other parts of the city, the seizure of which represented a major victory for the insurgents and raised questions over whether NATO-trained Afghan forces were ready to go it alone now most foreign combat troops have left.

Residents said soldiers were conducting house-to-house searches and had removed the Taliban flag from the central square, replacing it with government colors.

"There are military helicopters in the sky and government forces everywhere," said Abdul Ahad, a doctor in the city. "Dead Taliban are on the streets, but there are still (militants) in some government buildings fighting Afghan forces."

A Taliban spokesman said fighters had withdrawn to the edges of the city in order to attempt to encircle Afghan and U.S. troops.U.S. special forces accompanied and later fought alongside Afghan soldiers, the international military coalition confirmed, saying that they returned fire in self-defense.

The Afghan army's Deputy Chief of Staff, Murad Ali Murad, said most Taliban fighters had fled, although some were holed up in civilians' homes.

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An Afghan security vehicle advances towards the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan September 30, 2015. Afgh …

A Ministry of Defence statement said 150 Taliban had been killed and 90 wounded in the overnight offensive.

At least 30 people, mostly civilians, had been killed in the fighting as of Wednesday, according to a Health Ministry spokesman. He also said hospitals in Kunduz had treated about 340 wounded.

Wreckage from the battle was visible outside the city airport. Afghan soldiers said a burned out Humvee was hit by a U.S. air strike, and the bodies of half a dozen dead Taliban fighters were scattered along the road and in a nearby orchard.

Soldiers had taken photos of the dead militants and were proudly displaying them to their colleagues.

RESIDENTS IN HIDING

Terrified residents said there was intense fighting overnight as Afghan forces moved in.

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Afghan security forces arrive in the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan October 1, 2015. Afghan officials s …

"There were very heavy air strikes during the night. Those strikes prompted the Taliban to escape," Kunduz resident Abdul Qadir Anwari said on Thursday.

"Right now Afghan security forces are on the streets and fighting with the Taliban in some areas outside the city. Shops are still closed and people aren't leaving their houses."

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said fighting continued."It was our tactic to vacate the city to allow enemy troops to enter so we could encircle them," he said.

A spokesman for the NATO mission said U.S. special forces advisers were traveling with Afghan troops on their offensive when they came under threat from the Taliban.

The Americans "returned fire in self-defense to eliminate the threat," he added.

The spokesman confirmed that there had been five U.S. air strikes against Taliban positions near the city and airport since fighting began on Monday "to eliminate threats to coalition and Afghan forces."

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An Afghan National Army soldier rests after he arrives in a camp, outside of Kunduz city, north of K …

The Taliban, whose harsh interpretation of Islamic law during a five-year rule included public executions and denying women rights to work and education, have been fighting to regain power since being toppled by a U.S.-led intervention in 2001.

The once-quiet north of Afghanistan has seen escalating violence in recent years as the insurgency spread, and swathes of Kunduz province have repeatedly come under siege this year.

Yet the Taliban's pre-dawn assault on Kunduz on Monday caught the Afghan police and army by surprise, handing the militants arguably their biggest victory in 14 years of war.

The capitulation may have consequences for President Ashraf Ghani, whose first year in office has been clouded by political infighting and escalating violence around the country.

"I hope there is no doubt about the capacity and ability of Afghan forces," he told a news conference on Thursday.

FIERCE STRUGGLE

Events in Kunduz have belied the narrative that the NATO-trained Afghan police and army were steadily improving and able to prevent the Taliban from taking over and holding significant territory.

Training the 350,000-strong Afghan National Security Forces has been the heart of the U.S. plan to end involvement in its longest war. NATO forces officially wound up their combat role last year, leaving behind a training and advising force of several thousand.

Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah told Reuters on Wednesday that the crisis in Kunduz demonstrated the need for foreign troops to stay in the country.

The Battle to Retake Afghan City of Kunduz From Taliban (video)

Beirut (AFP) - Syrian rebels who oppose both the regime and the Islamic State group have been hit hardest by Russian air strikes, showing Moscow's determination to defend President Bashar al-Assad against all enemies, analysts say.

More than four years into Syria's devastating war, Russian warplanes began air strikes there on Wednesday, saying they were targeting IS jihadists and "other terrorist groups".

But Western officials said they had indications the Kremlin was concentrating its attacks on anti-Assad factions instead of jihadists.

Experts and a key monitoring group say that Moscow's targets show it intends to strike all opposition groups opposed to Damascus -- jihadist or otherwise -- in an effort to save Assad.

"Moscow has entered Syria to hit not just Daesh, but all groups it regards as terrorists, including those supported by the Gulf monarchies and Turkey," said Syria specialist Fabrice Balanche, using the Arabic acronym for the group.

"The first wave of Russian air strikes seemed to focus on rebel areas that threaten the Assad regime's Alawite heartland, showing that Moscow is more focused on seizing the mantle in Syria's war than fighting terrorists," he wrote in a policy brief for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

- Bombing to support Assad -

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Damaged buildings and a minaret are seen in the central Syrian town of Talbisseh in the Homs provinc …

Over the past two days, Russian strikes have targeted areas held by Syria's Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, powerful Islamist group Ahrar al-Sham, and smaller moderate groups -- some of which have received direct backing from the United States and Arab states.

The raids have hit the provinces of Idlib in northwest Syria, Latakia on the coast, and Homs and Hama in the centre.

IS is not known to have a presence in any of the targeted areas.

According to a Syrian security source, the Kremlin "considers IS, Nusra, and other rebels all as terrorist groups," as does the Assad regime, the source told AFP.

Over the past four years of war, the Syrian regime has taken great pains to paint all of its opponents -- even non-violent activists -- as "terrorists".

Analysts say that instead of striking areas where IS is strongest, like in its bastion province of Raqa, the Russian air force has opted to concentrate on areas where the regime is under greatest threat.

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Residents walk past the rubble of destroyed buildings on September 16, 2015, in the rebel-held area …

"Russia's objective is defending the regime. In this context, the non-jihadist armed opposition represents the most pressing threat," said Peter Harling of the International Crisis Group think tank.

Although a US-led coalition bombing jihadists in Syria for more than a year has also struck Al-Nusra and Ahrar al-Sham positions, the priority has remained IS.

According to Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for human Rights, "the Russians are bombing to support the regime in the provinces of Homs, Hama, and Latakia where Alawite areas have been threatened or attacked."

The Alawite sect is the offshoot of Shiite Islam to which the Assad clan belongs.

- Trap for the Russians? -

Abdel Rahman said a major concern for Assad's beleaguered regime was a key "triangle" that ran across parts of Homs and Hama and included Talbisseh and Rastan -- struck by Russian warplanes on Wednesday.

He said recent rebel advances in these areas threatened a major regime supply route north towards Aleppo province.

"A few weeks ago, Al-Nusra and other rebels used Talbisseh to launch an attack on nearby Alawite villages like Farrakhan," Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Al-Nusra had also threatened nearby Christian and Alawite villages, which is why the Russians chose to target Talbisseh, the Observatory said.

And in northwest Syria, Russians had struck Jabal al-Akrad, which rebels seized in 2012 and have used since to fire rockets at Latakia airport and Qardaha, Assad's ancestral homeland.

Moscow also targeted positions in Idlib province, which Assad's forces lost earlier this year after lightning offensives by the Army of Conquest group.

The Kremlin's military involvement is a bid "to help (the regime) hold on, in hopes that the opposing party will accept it," Harling told AFP.

But Karim Bitar, head of research at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris, said "these strikes further complicate the conflict... and could turn into a real trap for the Russians."

Wochit
Russia Launches Fresh Airstrikes on Syria Targets

By Tom Perry and Lidia Kelly

BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia bombed Syria for a third day on Friday, mainly hitting areas held by rival insurgent groups rather than the Islamic State fighters it said it was targeting and drawing an increasingly angry response from the West.

The U.S.-led coalition that is waging its own air war against Islamic State called on the Russians to halt strikes on targets other than Islamic State.

"We call on the Russian Federation to immediately cease its attacks on the Syrian opposition and civilians and to focus its efforts on fighting ISIL," said the coalition, which includes the United States, major European powers, Arab states and Turkey.

"We express our deep concern with regard to the Russian military build-up in Syria and especially ‎the attacks by the Russian Air Force on Hama, Homs and Idlib since yesterday which led to civilian casualties and did not target Daesh," it said.

ISIL and Daesh are both acronyms for Islamic State, also known as ISIS, which has set up a caliphate across a swathe of eastern Syria and northern Iraq.

In Syria, the group is one of many fighting against Russia's ally, President Bashar al-Assad. Washington and its Western and regional allies say Russia is using it as a pretext to bomb other groups that oppose Assad. Some of these groups have received training and weapons from Assad's foreign enemies, including the United States.

President Vladimir Putin held frosty talks with France's Francois Hollande in Paris, Putin's first meeting with a Western leader since launching the strikes two days after he gave an address to the United Nations making the case to back Assad.

PRAYERS CANCELED

Friday prayers were canceled in insurgent-held areas of Homs province that were hit by Russian warplanes this week, with residents concerned that mosques could be targeted, said one person from the area.

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In this image made from video provided by Hadi Al-Abdallah, which has been verified and is consisten …

"The streets are almost completely empty and there is an unannounced curfew," said the resident, speaking from the town of Rastan which was hit in the first day of Russian air strikes.

Warplanes were seen flying high above the area, which is held by anti-Assad rebels but has no significant presence of Islamic State fighters.

Islamic State also canceled prayers in areas it controls, according to activists from its de facto capital Raqqa.

A Russian air strike on Thursday destroyed a mosque in the town of Jisr al-Shughour, captured from government forces by an alliance of Islamist insurgents earlier this year, activists said.

The United Nations said it been forced to suspend planned humanitarian operations in parts of Syria due to the fighting.

Moscow said on Friday its latest strikes had hit 12 Islamic State targets, but most of the areas it described were in western and northern parts of the country, while Islamic State is mostly present in the east.

The Russian Defense Ministry said its Sukhoi-34, Sukhoi-24M and Sukhoi-25 warplanes had flown 18 sorties hitting targets that included a command post and a communications center in the province of Aleppo, a militant field camp in Idlib and a command post in Hama.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict with a network of sources on the ground, said there was no Islamic State presence at any of those areas.

Russia has however also struck Islamic State areas in a small number of other attacks further east. The Observatory said 12 Islamic State fighters were killed near Raqqa on Thursday, and planes believed to be Russian had also struck the Islamic State-held city of Qarytayn.

Syria says Russia strikes are targeting IS groupPlay video

Russia has said it is using its most advanced plane, the Sukhoi-34, near Raqqa, the area where it is most likely to encounter U.S. and coalition aircraft targeting Islamic State.

The U.S.-led coalition said it conducted 28 air strikes on Islamic State targets in Syria and Iraq on Thursday.

FROSTY HANDSHAKES

As Hollande hosted Putin in Paris, both men looked stern in the yard of the Elysee palace, exchanging terse handshakes for the cameras.

An aide to Hollande said they "tried to narrow differences" over Syria during talks that lasted more than an hour.

Hollande laid out France's conditions for supporting Russian intervention, which include a halt to strikes on groups other than Islamic State and al Qaeda, protections for civilians and a commitment to a political transition that would remove Assad.

Putin's decision to launch strikes on Syria marks a dramatic escalation of foreign involvement in a 4-year-old civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake.

Lebanese sources have told Reuters that hundreds of Iranian troops have also arrived in recent days in Syria to participate in a major ground offensive alongside government troops and their Lebanese and Iraqi Shi'ite militia allies.

Syria's foreign minister said the U.S.-led coalition's campaign against Islamic State was bound to fail.

"Air strikes are useless unless they are conducted in cooperation with the Syrian army, the only force in Syria that is combating terrorism," Walid al-Moualem said in a speech to United Nations General Assembly in New York.

COMMON ENEMY, DIFFERENT FRIENDS

Western countries and Russia say they have a common enemy in Islamic State. But they also have very different friends and opposing views of how to resolve a war that has killed at least 250,000 people and driven more than 10 million from their homes.

Washington and its allies oppose both Islamic State and Assad, blaming him for attacks on civilians that have radicalized the opposition and insisting that he has no place in a post-war settlement.

Russia says Assad's government should be the centerpiece of international efforts to fight militants.

The campaign is the first time Moscow has sent forces into combat beyond the frontiers of the former Soviet Union since the disastrous Afghanistan campaign of the 1980s, a bold move by Putin to extend Russia's influence beyond its neighborhood.

It comes at a low point in Russia's relations with the West, a year after the United States and EU imposed financial sanctions on Moscow for annexing territory from Ukraine.

Assad and his father before him were Moscow's close allies in the Middle East since the Cold War, and Russia maintains its only Mediterranean naval base on the Syrian coast.

Moscow's intervention comes at a time when insurgents had been scoring major battlefield gains against government forces after years of stalemate in the war.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau in Paris, Vladimir Soldatkin in Moscow, David Dolan in Istanbul and Orhan Coskun in Ankara; Writing by Peter Graff; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Afghan security forces sit on top of a vehicle as they patrol outside of Kunduz city, October 1, 2015. REUTERS/Hamid Shalizi

By Mirwais Harooni and Jessica Donati

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters were holding out against Afghan troops in Kunduz on Friday, a day after government forces recaptured most of the northern city that had fallen to the militants in their biggest victory of a 14-year insurgency.

In Jalalabad in the east of the country, a U.S. military transport plane crashed at an airfield just after midnight, killing all 11 people on board, the U.S. military said.

The Taliban said it had shot down the aircraft, but the U.S. military, which still has several thousands troops in Afghanistan after NATO's combat mission ended, said there were no reports of enemy fire and described the crash as an accident.

In Badakhsan province in Afghanistan's northeast, the Taliban took control of Warduj district late on Thursday after heavy fighting, according to Nawid Forotan, a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Residents in Kunduz, a strategic city of 300,000 that fell to the Taliban in a stunning pre-dawn attack on Monday, said that while most Taliban fighters had fled, some were holed up in civilian homes fighting the army.Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Friday they had taken control of Kunduz, a claim denied by the Afghan government."We have beaten up the enemy forces," Mujahid said. The Taliban have been accused of extrajudicial killings, raping, torturing, looting and setting fire to government buildings during their three-day occupation of Kunduz, the Afghan president's office said on Friday.

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An Afghan policeman patrols next to destroyed vehicles in the city of Kunduz, Afghanistan October 1, …

"Afghanistan is committed to legally prosecute the

perpetrators of these crimes, and to that end, assigns a civilian commission to assess the losses sustained as a result of the Taliban presence," a statement said.

At least 60 people have been killed in the fighting as of Friday, according to a Health Ministry spokesman. He said hospitals in Kunduz had treated about 466 wounded.

Ahmad Sahil, a producer for local Afghan television in the city, said many people were still too afraid to leave their houses.

"The Taliban who knew Kunduz left the city already, but many foreign fighters could not flee and are hiding in people's homes in some parts of the city center and are still resisting," Sahil said on Friday.

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Afghan security forces prepare to check on reports of a possible ambush by the Taliban on the Baghla …

Hamdullah Danishi, acting governor of Kunduz province, described the capital as calm, and said there was "no major fighting".

He acknowledged, however, that the insurgents had not been completely driven from Kunduz. "Taliban are still in civilian houses and buildings," Danishi said. "They are using civilians as human shields."

TALIBAN GAINS IN NORTHEASTThe International Committee of the Red Cross said it was increasingly concerned about the welfare of citizens inside the city and the lack of medical supplies and personnel.

"We are very short-staffed in the hospitals," said Peter Esmith Ewoi, an ICRC doctor working in the city. "The medical staff in the city cannot get to the hospitals because of the on-going fighting."The ICRC said it has emergency medical supplies ready to be flown in as soon as security at Kunduz airport improves.

In a worrying sign for government forces struggling to contain a growing militant threat, the Taliban made territorial gains elsewhere in the country, although on a smaller scale than the brief seizure of Kunduz.

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Afghan security forces prepare to check on reports of a possible ambush by the Taliban on the Baghla …

"Our forces did not get reinforcements on time," Forotan said of the loss of Warduj district in Badakhshan. "Taliban were in big numbers, therefore our forces retreated." The Taliban said they killed 50 soldiers and gained control of 28 checkposts in a district of Badakhshan province that has been fought over for years.

It occupies a position along a highway to the border with Tajikistan and also shares a border with China and Pakistan.

The attack started when Taliban militants raided checkpoints in several villages, overrunning reinforcements and seizing control late in the afternoon, according to a government report. The police headquarters in Warduj fell at around 6 p.m. it said.

At least two policemen were killed in the battle, while three others were reported missing.

(Writing by Kay Johnson and Andrew MacAskill; Editing by Mike Collett-White)

Transcript

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Afghan forces are fighting to retake the provincial capital of Kunduz. The Taliban controls most of the city. That's something that has not happened since U.S. troops overthrew the Taliban government in 2001. NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman has spent a lot of time in Afghanistan over the years, most recently embedded with Afghan forces this past spring. He's with us now in the studio. Welcome, Tom.

TOM BOWMAN, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

SHAPIRO: It was a huge event when Kunduz fell to Taliban forces. It had seemed until then that the Afghans were keeping them at bay. Now it seems that the government is fighting to regain control of the city. What is the latest?

BOWMAN: Well, the latest is Afghan president Ashraf Ghani says his troops are taking, building by building back, government buildings. They do hold the airport, and they say that roughly a hundred or so Taliban fighters have been killed. But also, dozens of civilians have been wounded, some of them killed. So it's still very much a pitched battle taking back Kunduz City.

SHAPIRO: And just the fact that this city fell to the Taliban in the first place, a provincial capital on a key supply line, seems like a really significant development.

BOWMAN: It is significant. Again, as you say, it's on a supply line into Tajikistan, into Northern - outside of Northern Afghanistan. Also, it's a big morale booster, a recruiting tool for the Taliban as well. Of course, their leader, Mohammed Omar - we found that he had died two years ago we found out this year. So they have new leadership. They want to make a big push. And this clearly is a big win for them.

SHAPIRO: Just today, there have been airstrikes in Kunduz. We know the U.S. is no longer involved in ground combat operations apart from a few focused counterterrorism missions. Is the U.S. playing a role in those airstrikes, and more broadly, what is American involvement in all of this?

BOWMAN: The U.S. has done airstrikes on - outside of Kunduz City on Taliban locations. And the thing, Ari, is that the Afghans really don't have much of an air force. They have some helicopters, some supply planes. They're building up their air force. But right now, they really on the Americans for any kind of airstrikes, and I heard that repeatedly when I was there in the spring. We need more American airstrikes. However, the Americans are only using them in extreme cases. This is only the second time this year the Americans have mounted airstrikes to help the Afghan forces. Earlier this year, they did it in Helmand Province. There was a lot of Taliban attacks out there.

SHAPIRO: Well, what does this major development - the Taliban takeover of Kunduz - say about the future of Afghanistan and about the future of the U.S. role there given that America plans to withdraw almost all of the troops by next year?

BOWMAN: Well, first of all, the Afghan troops have been pretty much holding their own around the country. Taliban have been sort of eating away at certain portions of the country - Kunduz City, of course. And also in the East along the the Pakistan border, they've lost some ground, and also to the southwest in Helmand Province, they've lost a bit of ground there as well. But overall, they've been holding their own, so this will be a big test to see if they can push the Taliban out and retake the city.

As far as the Americans are concerned, there are roughly 10,000 American troops there now. Most of them are trainers. And they're supposed to draw it down to a very small embassy presence by the end of next year. But this latest Taliban move and also the - frankly, the disintegration of Iraq may mean that you keep larger numbers of American troops there into next year and maybe even beyond.

SHAPIRO: Obviously Iraq and Afghanistan are different scenarios, but I think many people remember watching the Iraqi army simply crumble under the onslaught of ISIS. Is this a similar situation in Afghanistan, or do you sense that the Afghan military is more able to hold ground than the Iraqi military was? Obviously we're talking about the Taliban in Afghanistan and not ISIS, but how similar are these two scenarios?

BOWMAN: Well, first of all, I think the Afghan forces are much tougher than the Iraqis outside of the Kurdish forces who are quite good fighters. But I think that, clearly, the Obama administration has looked at what happened in Iraq, and they may think twice about going down to a small embassy presence for U.S. military at the end of next year.

SHAPIRO: That's NPR's Tom Bowman speaking to us about the fall of the city of Kunduz to the Taliban in Afghanistan. Thanks, Tom.