Weeks after they overran a strategically important city in northern Afghanistan, the Taliban said Wednesday their forces have now withdrawn from Kunduz after achieving their objectives.
The Afghan Defense Ministry issued its own statement about a change on the ground - characterizing it not as some sort of strategic withdrawal but a Taliban defeat that resulted in the deaths of a "large number of enemy fighters."
The ministry said its special forces retook Kunduz province's Char Dara district, which has been a Taliban stronghold for years, on Tuesday night and subsequently began the process of clearing it.
The district is southwest of the provincial capital.