Heavy fighting flared in Tarin Kot Thursday as Taliban insurgents pushed inside the capital of the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, local residents and officials said.

“The Taliban have entered the city and are fighting to take over police and NDS (intelligence agency) headquarters, and we fear they will storm the prison to free captured insurgents,” Haji Bari Daad, a tribal elder in Tarin Kot, told AFP.

The fighting prompted urgent calls from officials for reinforcements and air support. “If reinforcements do not arrive the city will collapse into the hands of the Taliban,” Karim Khademzai, head of provincial capital in Uruzgan, told AFP.

The news comes as Taliban are threatening to capture Lashkar Gah in neighboring Helmand province, and northern Kunduz city, which the militants briefly seized last year in a stinging blow to Afghan forces.

Source: AFP