MORE than 100 soldiers and police and at least 20 civilians have died in four days of fierce fighting for control of the city of Ghazni, Afghan Defence Minister General Tareq Shah Bahrami said today.

The assault on the city, just 75 miles from the capital Kabul, is the most ambitious Taliban offensive in years. Its capture would not only be a propaganda boost for the jihadist army, 17 years after the US invasion aimed at destroying it, but would cut off a major motorway linking Kabul to southern provinces where the Taliban are strong.

Gen Bahrami said 194 Taliban fighters were among the dead, including 12 “leaders,” and insurgent casualties included foreign fighters from Pakistan, Russia’s Chechnya region and the Arab world.

The attack on Ghazni began on Friday, with insurgents infiltrating people’s homes and slipping out into the night to attack Afghan forces.

At least 1,000 soldiers have been sent to reinforce the city, but details of the fighting are hard to verify as the Taliban have destroyed a communications tower on the city's outskirts, cutting off landlines and mobile phones alike.

The US is believed to have sent advisers to the city. Despite declaring an end to the war in 2014, Washington still deploys almost 15,000 soldiers in the country. British Prime Minister Theresa May raised this country’s troop deployment there to more than 1,000 last month in a bid to impress US President Donald Trump.

UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Afghanistan Rik Peeperkorn called on both sides to “ensure access to medical services is not denied and respect for medical facilities and staff is upheld.”

The International Federation of Journalists and the Afghan Independent Journalists Association warned that journalists were being targeted in the battle, naming media technician Mohammad Dawood among the slain and saying the radio and TV stations in the city had been torched.