US Launches Air Strikes After Taliban Takes Over Afghan Town of Kunduz

It comes after the city of Kunduz was taken over by the group.

ByABC News

September 29, 2015, 9:54 AM

Kunduz, pictured on Sept. 28, 2015,was taken over by the Taliban on Monday and US and Afghan forces have launched counter attacks to retake the city.
Hekmat Aimaq/AP Photo

 -- U.S. military forces have launched airstrikes in the Kunduz province of Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the city.

The strikes, which launched as support for Afghan security forces, were confirmed to ABC News by U.S. Army Col. Brian Tribus, a spokesman for U.S. Forces in Afghanistan.

Taliban Takeover of Afghan Town Raises Questions About US Pullout

He said that the strike, carried out this morning, was ordered "to eliminate a threat to coalition and Afghan forces in the area," though he did not mention the Taliban by name.

Afghan forces began a clearing operation to retake Kunduz early Tuesday morning according to Sayed Sarwar Hussaini, a spokesman for the Kunduz Police.

Kunduz, pictured on Sept. 29, 2015,was taken over by the Taliban on Monday and US and Afghan forces have launched counter attacks to retake the city.

Hussaini claimed that major buildings in the city had been retaken including the city’s central jail and police headquarters. It is believed that more than 600 prisoners at the city’s jail were released by the Taliban yesterday.

Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, who has been in power for a year now, held a news conference detailing the action and the Taliban's fight to control the country's fifth-largest city.

Ghani said that the terrorist groups in the area used civilians.

Smoke rises from a police station during clashes between Taliban fighters and Afghan security forces, in Kunduz city, north of Kabul, Afghanistan, Sept. 28, 2015.

Resolute Support is the name of the NATO training mission in Afghanistan that is slated to conclude at the end of next year, 9,800 American military troops remain in Afghanistan as part of that mission.

ABC News' Luis Martinez and Aleem Agha contributed to this report.

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