<span style="color: #222222;">The Taliban have launched a new large-scale attack on one of Afghanistan's main cities, Kunduz, and taken hospital patients as hostages. <br />'' <br />'' Presidential spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said, Afghan security forces are repelling the attack in parts of the city. A Defence Ministry spokesman asserted that 26 Taliban fighters have been killed in an airstrike. <br />'' <br />''Taliban have continued bloody assaults on civilians and security forces even as their leaders meet with a US peace envoy in Qatar to negotiate an end to nearly 18 years of war.</span><br />