*KUNDUZ: *Taliban fighters seized a district centre in northern Afghanistanon Saturday, while a bomb at an army base in the southern province ofHelmand killed at least five people.
The latest violence came as insurgents pushed ahead with a spring offensive.
Fighters captured the governor’s house and police headquarters in Aq Tapa,in the Qala-e Zal district of Kunduz province and Afghan government forceswere fighting to drive them out, said Sayed Assadullah Sadat, a provincialcouncil member.
The Taliban’s main spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said fighters had captureda police headquarters, 10 security check posts and a market in Qala-e Zal,north of Kunduz city.
At the other end of the country, in Helmand, insurgents launched a vehiclebomb attack on a military base in Nad Ali district, killing four civiliansand a soldier, according to a statement from the provincial governor’soffice.
The Taliban announced the official start of their annual spring offensivethis week, continuing the heavy fighting seen across Afghanistan recentlyas warmer weather has set in.
Last year, the United States announced a more aggressive strategy withstepped up air strikes and more assistance to Afghan government forcesfighting the insurgency, drawing a defiant response from the Taliban, whosaid they would target American forces in the spring campaign.
The fighting may threaten preparations for parliamentary and districtcouncil elections planned in October.
In the eastern province of Nangarhar, a rocket fired by Taliban fightershit a house in the Hoodi area of Goshta district on Friday night. Fivecivilians were killed and three were injured.
Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial spokesman for Nangarhar, said threewomen were among those killed and two women and a child were injured in theattack.
Assessments of the size of Taliban territorial control vary but thePentagon estimates that 56 percent of the country is under governmentcontrol, while a BBC survey this year estimated the insurgents were activein 70 per cent of Afghanistan.