Taliban launch huge assault on western Afghan city

Taliban militants have launched an offensive on the western Afghan city of Farah on Tuesday, with fierce fighting breaking out between insurgents and government forces.

Around 100 commandoes joined government reinforcements to prevent the fall of Farah to the militants. 

Taliban fighters are said to be just a few kilometres from the city centre with fierce fighting between the militants and government troops continuing.

"Heavy fighting continues inside the city and aircraft have just started bombarding Taliban positions," local provincial council member Jamila Amini told AFP. 

"Government reinforcements have arrived including around 100 commando forces."

The insurgents captured one district in Farah and parts of another, she added. One suicide bomber targeted a government convoy during the assault.

"The Taliban are moving very fast, if the government does not take serious and speedy action, the province is going to collapse to Taliban," one resident warned Reuters.

Another council member told the agency that the Taliban contingent were well-armed and in large numbers.

"Taliban has entered our city with a full might... they are equipped with heavy arms and night vision," said Dadullah Qane, a provincial council member of Farah.

Satar Hissaini, a tribal elder in Farah, told AFP that although the situation is "very bad", the city was being defended.

"Heavy fighting is going on and Taliban are in the city but the police headquarters and NDS (the Afghan intelligence agency) have not fallen to them," he said. 

"NDS forces in their HQ are engaged in heavy clashes with the Taliban."

But the defence ministry said the army had repulsed the attack and that "security forces are now chasing the enemy".

The Taliban issued a statement warning residents to remain inside their homes and called on people to "stay calm".

The assault comes as the Taliban are stepping up their spring offensive, in an apparent rejection of a peace talks overture by the Afghan government.

Farah is a poppy-growing province in a hard to reach part of Afghanistan.

It's also an important economic area with the multi-billion-dollar TAPI (Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India) gas pipeline planned for the region.

The Taliban have pledged to cooperate with the project.

Farah has been the scene of intense fighting in recent years. 

In 2017, insurgents tried to overrun the capital three times, according to the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

Kabul has also come under attack from the Taliban insurgents and the Islamic State group.