Taliban fighters inside Ghazni city, west of Kabul, in June. Photo / AP file
Taliban insurgents held on to parts of the key city of Ghazni for a third day, putting up scattered resistance as Afghan forces backed by US airstrikes worked to clear them out.
The eastern city was overrun by hundreds of insurgent forces in the Taliban's latest attempt to capture an
important urban target.
Most communication with the city of 250,000 was cut off, and Taliban fighters were described as attacking key government buildings and taking over homes and shops in various neighbourhoods.
Insurgent forces were said to have mined and set up checkpoints on the nearby highway, which links Kabul with the southern tribal region that is the Taliban's home turf.
An army official in Kabul, Sharif Yaftali, told journalists that "strategic and key areas" of Ghazni are under control of the government but that insurgents had taken cover in populated areas, slowing efforts to drive them out. He said officials hope to restore security and reopen the highway within two days.
