Kunduz

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter arrived in Madrid on Oct.4, beginning a European tour amid alarm over Russian bombardments in Syria and the refugee crisis sparked by the conflict.

Medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres denied that Taliban fighters were firing from its hospital at Afghan and NATO forces  before a suspected U.S. air strike killed at least 19 people in a battle to oust the Islamist insurgents from an Afghan city. 

The Taliban claimed Oct.2 to have shot down a US military transport plane in eastern Afghanistan in a crash that killed 11 people, as the battle for Kunduz raged after the emboldened militants briefly seized the city.

Afghan forces retook control of the strategic northern city of Kunduz on Oct.1 after a three-day Taliban occupation that dealt a stinging blow to the country's NATO-trained military.

NATO special forces have reached Kunduz to support Afghan troops after the Taliban seized the strategic northern city, the military coalition said on Sept.30.

Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters in Kunduz on Sept. 29 as the government launched an operation to retake the centre of the northern city, the first provincial capital to fall to the insurgents since their movement was toppled 14 years ago.

The Taliban Sept. 28 seized half of an Afghan provincial capital, sending panicked residents fleeing as the hardline Islamists for the first time breached a major city since being ousted from power in 2001.