Afghan district falls to Taliban: officials

Taliban militants yesterday captured a district in northeastern Kunduz province, near the provincial capital where militants scored their biggest victory in 14 years last September.

The militants, waging a bloody insurgency to topple the Western-backed Kabul government, have intensified their attacks nationwide and tightened their grip on the besieged capital of Helmand province southwest of Kunduz in recent weeks.

Khan Abad district, which is around 30 kilometres east of Kunduz city, fell to Taliban after the militants launched a pre-dawn attack on the district centre, according to local officials.

"After several hours of fighting the militants overran the district," the district's governor Hayatullah Amiri told AFP, adding that the provincial governor ignored their calls for reinforcements.

Khan Abad resident Abdul Satar told AFP hundreds had fled their homes amid the fighting.

The Taliban briefly captured northern Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war.

The militants were driven out almost two weeks later by Afghan forces backed by US aircraft and Nato soldiers, but it marked the first time since 2001 that the Taliban were able to take control of a major city in the country.