Fierce gunbattles raged for a second day across Afghanistan's embattled northern city of Kunduz after the Taliban launched a new, multipronged attack on the city they had briefly captured last year.
Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Afghan security forces were "trying to secure the city'' but Taliban gunmen are hiding in residential homes, making progress slow and difficult.
The Taliban began their attack from all directions early the previous day. They briefly raised a flag over a main intersection before being repelled from the city centre.
Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, the head of the Kunduz provincial council, said the city has become a battlefield, with fighting going on in many different areas on Tuesday.
The city fell to the Taliban a year ago before the insurgents were beaten back by Afghan forces with the help of US airstrikes.
Kunduz's fall last year sent shockwaves across the country and among Afghanistan's backers in the international community as it marked the Taliban's first capture of an urban centre since the group was driven from power in 2001.
The city came under threat again in April, when US-backed Afghan forces pushed the Taliban back into surrounding districts.
US military spokesman in Afghanistan, Brig Gen Charles Cleveland said the Afghan military had moved reinforcements into Kunduz overnight.
"While there is sporadic fighting, the government controls Kunduz,'' he said, adding that "US forces ... will provide support as needed.''
