Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/578491
8 maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2015 News Afghan forces attempt to retake strategic city from Taliban AFGHANISTAN yesterday mo- bilised its army as it attempted to take back Kunduz, a day af- ter Taliban fighters overran the strategic northern city in their biggest victory since being top- pled from power in 2001. Tuesday's mobilisation came as the US carried out its first air strike on Kunduz, the capital of Kunduz province. Taliban forces forced Afghan troops and officials to retreat to the airport and freed hundreds from jail, in one of their biggest assaults since 2001. The attack came as Afghani- stan's President Ashraf Ghani completed a year in office who in a televised address vowed to retake Kunduz and urged Af- ghans not to give in to "fear and terror." Scores of unidentified bodies littered the streets after hours of heav y fighting on Monday, according to local residents, many of whom were making a hasty exit from Kunduz, some by road while others headed to the airport. Kunduz is the first provincial capital seized by the Taliban since they lost power in the US- led invasion 14 years ago, and the Taliban's advance there will pile pressure on Ghani's unity government. It said it had deployed hun- dreds of fresh troops to help with the effort to retake the city on Tuesday. Heav y fighting was report- ed, and officials said they had regained control of the area around the provincial prison and the police headquarters. The Taliban's new leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, said the government should admit defeat. Kunduz residents "should not be worried about their lives and property" and should "continue as normal", he said in a state- ment. Phone and power services for most of the city were reportedly still down. US Army Colonel Brian Tri- bus, spokesperson for the US and NATO missions in Afghan- istan, said the raid was con- ducted "in order to eliminate a threat to the force", though there were no foreign troops left inside the city. The Taliban's incursion into Kunduz barely nine months after the NATO combat mis- sion concluded raises troubling questions over the capacity of Afghan forces as they battle the fighters largely on their own. Kunduz province, which bor- ders Tajikistan and is a major transport hub for the north of the country, could offer the Tal- iban a critical new base of oper- ations beyond their traditional southern strongholds. The Taliban has been largely absent from Afghan cities since being driven from power by the US and its allies, but has main- tained rule over swaths of the countryside. Kunduz, a Pashtun-majority province, was the last Taliban stronghold in northern Afghan- istan in November 2001. The fighters have stepped up attacks, starting with an of- fensive launched in late April against the internationally rec- ognised government in Kabul. The Taliban are believed to enjoy the backing of fighters from neighbouring Central Asian countries. Afghan government forces launched a counteroffensive against Taliban fighters who on Monday captured the strategic city of Kunduz Afghan forces commence operation to retake the city of Kunduz, after suffering a major blow when it was seized by the Taliban on Monday UN condemns Yemen wedding airstrike UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemned an airstrike in Yemen blamed for the deaths of an estimated 135 ci- vilians at a wedding party. A Saudi-led Arab coalition that has air supremacy over Yemen has strongly denied any role in the tragedy, and a coalition spokesman suggested local militias might have been responsible. "Any intentional attack against ci- vilians is considered a serious viola- tion of international humanitarian law," Ban said in a statement on Monday. "Violations of international law should be investigated through prompt, effective, independent and impartial mechanisms to ensure accountability." Reports said the fatalities include children. Residents said on Monday that two missiles tore through tents in the Red Sea village of Al-Wahijah, near the port of Al-Mokha. A local man affiliated with the Houthis – the Shia rebel group who are fight- ing the coalition – was holding his wedding reception. The incident happened on Mon- day, with local medical officials ac- cusing the Arab coalition of causing the deaths while bombing a village near the Red Sea port of al-Mokha. Local residents and witnesses said that coalition aircraft had carried out intense raids against Houthi positions in the al-Mokha area in recent days. Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies launched an air campaign in March against the Iran-allied Shia Houthis, after they forced Yemen's President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi into exile. The Arab coalition began air- strikes in March in a bid to drive the Iranian-allied Houthi forces out of wide swaths of the country seized since last year. The coalition is seeking to reinstate Hadi. Pro-Hadi government forces backed by local militias, Gulf troop reinforcements and air raids have retaken terrain from the Houthis, including the southern port of Aden, where Hadi has set up a tem- porary base after returning from Saudi exile. But international rights groups have expressed alarm at the esca- lating number of civilian deaths in the conflict – at least 2,355 out of more than 4,500 people killed from the end of March to 24 September, according to figures released by the UN on Tuesday. Some 5,000 people have been killed in air strikes and fighting in Yemen since March Raul Castro calls for end of US embargo CUBAN President Raul Castro has told the UN that normal relations with the US will only be possible if America takes a number of meas- ures including the abolition of its 53-yer-old trade embargo. Havana and Washington earlier this year stunned the world by re- storing diplomatic relations but is- sues over human rights remain. In the first speech at the UN by a Cuban president since his older brother Fidel addressed the Mil- lennium Summit in 2000, Castro said his countrymen must be "com- pensated" for the decades-old U.S. embargo if relations between the former Cold War enemies are to continue to improve. "After 56 years of heroic and self- less resistance by the Cuban people, diplomatic relations were re-estab- lished between Cuba and the Unit- ed States of America. Now, a long and complex process begins toward the normalization of relations that will only be achieved with the end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade," Castro said. He also called on the US to return the military base at Cuba's Guan- tanamo Bay and end anti-commu- nist broadcasts to the island. His US counterpart Barack Obama also called for the trade em- bargo to be lifted and said that he was confident that the US Congress would do so soon. Addressing the UN General As- sembly on Monday, Obama said he thought the Republican-held Congress would inevitably lift "an embargo that should not be in place anymore" despite its reservations over the administration's support for it. He said that while the Cuba policy of the US had "failed to improve the lives of the Cuban people", human rights remained a concern in rela- tions with Havana. Castro (right) met with Barack Obama on Tuesday in New York