United Nation (UN) officials said on Friday it was not possible for aid workers to safely enter the city of Ghazni after the Taliban attack earlier this week.
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that there is no safe way for civilians or humanitarian workers to enter Ghazni.
"One of the main reasons for that is that there are IEDs (improvised explosive devices) and mines on the way. We do have capacity to actually spot and map where these mines are, but we do not have the capacity to remove them. That is the responsibility and within the capacity of the national government to do so," Laerke said.
He said there is an estimated 200-250 casualties as fighting continued on the outskirts of the city over the past five days.
"We estimate that there are some 200-250 civilian casualties, according to the latest unverified numbers." Laerke added.
President Ashraf Ghani visited the war-weary city of Ghazni southwest of Kabul a week after the Taliban attacked the provincial capital and infiltrated key regions.
The president held talks with senior security officials and the governor of Ghazni who was reportedly out of the country when the city came under attack last Friday.
The Afghan president ordered a ‘proper investigation’ into the ‘Ghazni plot’ when he addressed a gathering of locals in the city on Friday afternoon.
The Associated Press said in a report published on Friday that two rockets hit the city as Ghani held a meeting with elders at a nearby mosque. A third rocket landed in a nearby river, witnesses said as quoted by the Associated Press.
No one was hurt in the rocket attack, the report said.
Ghani directed security officials to rebuild Ghazni police headquarters and establish more security check points in the city to ensure the safety of the residents.