The Kunduz-Khanabad highway, which connects north-eastern Takhar and Badakhshan province to the capital of embattled north-eastern Kunduz province, has been closed for the past five days.
At least seven security posts located on the highway in Khanabad district are surrounded by the Taliban, Sayed Assadullah Sadat, a provincial council member from Kunduz told DPA.
“We don’t have any doubt that Kunduz will fall again”, Sadat said, adding that the fighting could once again displace many residents who have had “their belongings on their backs for the past three years.”
Kunduz was already captured once by the Taliban, for nearly two weeks in late 2015, the first provincial capital to ever fall to the insurgents since the American-led intervention in 2001.
In late 2016, fighters entered the city and fought with security forces for days before being pushed out.
“People are living in fear, almost a third of the families who could afford it have left Kunduz city,” a resident, Khaluddin, said.
He described life in the city as “strange”, with shops closing in the early afternoon every day due to fear and fighting.
Fighting is also raging on in other areas of the province.
The UN estimates that more than 30,000 individuals have been displaced by fighting in the district of Qala-e Zal, as well as by fighting along the Kunduz-Khanabad highway in the past days alone.
Mahfoozullah Akbari, a spokesman for the Kunduz police, said that security forces are advancing towards embattled districts with the help of the Afghan air force.
To help Afghan security forces push back the resurgent Taliban, the administration of US President Donald Trump is debating the possibility of sending more troops to Afghanistan.
Media quoted high-ranking advisors speaking of up to 5,000 soldiers.
More troops are likely to reinforce Nato’s training and assistance mission, Resolute Support.
Due to a lack of personnel, the mission is currently only training on the highest levels and cannot advise below corps levels.
However, US President Donald Trump has yet to make a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday.
It was not a question of “throwing money or people, but looking at the mission and the strategy,” Spicer said.
Trump had asked his national security team questions: “How do we win? How do we eliminate the threat?” he continued.
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