At least 18 people have been killed and 40 people have been injured in Kandahar.
A police compound in the heart of the city was the first to come under attack yesterday as heavily armed insurgents launched rocket-propelled grenades.
Gunfire rang out through the main city in Afghanistan's south after Afghan troops fought running battles with Taliban fighters, the second day of fighting since scores of insurgents launched waves of attacks on key government and police targets.
Heavy machine-gun fire and explosions echoed across Kandahar city through the morning as Afghan forces, aided by NATO-led coalition troops, tried to mop up pockets of insurgent fighters, including some who had holed up in a shopping mall.
Kandahar provincial governor Tooryalai Wesa later declared that the attacks had been put down but, soon after he spoke, bursts of gunfire were heard from the shopping mall from which insurgents had been directing fire on his compound.
Violence in the city, seen as the Taliban's birthplace, broke out yesterday when militants with guns and rocket-propelled grenades attacked the governor's office from nearby buildings.
It spread to sites including the local offices of the intelligence service and several police offices as a total of ten explosions including six suicide blasts rocked the city.
Nearly 50 people have been wounded in the standoff, the first major incident since the Taliban announced the start of its annual spring offensive just over a week ago.
Although the attacks died down overnight, Taliban fighters were still occupying one traffic police building, firing shots and rockets.
‘It is a complicated building, that is why it has taken a while to clear up but soon we will clear the building of the enemy,’ said Kandahar border police commander General Abdul Razeq, in charge of the operation.
The building is also close to the local office of the Afghan intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security (NDS).
The city's streets were virtually empty of people today.
Nearly 500 Taliban prisoners escaped from Kandahar's prison last month through a huge tunnel in a major embarrassment for the authorities.
Also in April, Kandahar's police chief was killed by an attacker in a police uniform, while in January Wesa's deputy was assassinated.
