Afghan officials said government troops recaptured much of the strategic northern city of Kunduz from Taliban insurgents early on Thursday, three days after losing the provincial capital in an embarrassing defeat for Kabul and its U.S. allies.
Details of the overnight counter-offensive were still emerging, and it was not immediately clear which areas of the city of 300,000 were back under government control.
A Taliban spokesman denied the government had retaken Kunduz, saying insurgent fighters were still resisting government forces in the center and controlled most of the rest of the city.
Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, said the counter-offensive started at 11 p.m. on Wednesday and finished at 4 a.m. Thursday.
"Right now, the Taliban have left Kunduz city.
A clearance operation is ongoing," Waziri said.