Taliban capture northern Afghan city of Kunduz

The Taliban said on Sunday they had captured the key Afghan city of Kunduz, a claim confirmed by an AFP correspondent in the vicinity, as fierce fighting raged in the centre of a second northern capital, Shar-e-pul.

"Kunduz has fallen; the Taliban have taken all the key installations in the city," an AFP correspondent said.

A lawmaker from Sar-e-Pul told AFP the Taliban had entered the centre of the city and "street to street fighting is ongoing."

The fall of the northern city deals a major blow for the central government, which has largely abandoned fighting in the countryside to defend urban centres against Taliban attacks.

The Taliban have taken two other provincial capitals since Friday, but Kunduz marks the most significant to fall since the insurgents launched an offensive in May as foreign forces began the final stages of their withdrawal.

On Friday the Taliban seized their first provincial capital, Zaranj in Nimroz, and followed it up a day later by taking Sheberghan in Jawzjan.

Fighting was also reported on the outskirts of Herat, in the west, and Lashkar Gah and Kandahar in the south.

The pace of Taliban advances has caught government forces flatfooted, but they had some respite late on Saturday after US warplanes bombed Taliban positions in Sheberghan, the Jawzjan province capital seized earlier in the day.

"US forces have conducted several airstrikes in defence of our Afghan partners in recent days," Major Nicole Ferrara, a Central Command spokesperson, told AFP in Washington.

Sheberghan is the stronghold of notorious Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, whose militiamen and government forces were reported to have retreated to the airport.

Dostum has overseen one of the largest militias in the north and garnered a fearsome reputation fighting the Taliban in the 1990s - along with accusations his forces massacred thousands of insurgent prisoners of war.