KUNDUZ (AFP) - Taleban militants on Saturday (Aug 20) captured a district in north-eastern Kunduz province, near the provincial capital where militants scored their biggest victory in 14 years last September.

The militants, waging a bloody insurgency to topple the Western-backed Kabul government, have intensified their attacks nationwide and tightened their grip on the besieged capital of Helmand province southwest of Kunduz in recent weeks.

Khan Abad district, which is around 30km east of Kunduz city, fell to the Taleban after the militants launched a pre-dawn attack on the district centre, according to local officials.

"After several hours of fighting the militants overran the district," the district's governor Hayatullah Amiri told AFP, adding that the provincial governor ignored their calls for reinforcements.

Provincial spokesman Sayed Mahmood Danish confirmed the overnight battle, and said security forces were "trying to get back control of the district from the Taleban".

Khan Abad resident Abdul Satar told AFP that hundreds had fled their homes amid the fighting.

"The residents of the city are worried about their lives and safety. People are fleeing their homes and they have left their shops," he said, adding that roads to neighbouring provinces were closed.

Taleban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed in a statement that the group's fighters were in control of district and police headquarters.

The Taleban briefly captured northern Kunduz city in September last year, the first city to fall to the insurgents in their biggest victory in 14 years of war.

The militants were driven out almost two weeks later by Afghan forces backed by US aircraft and Nato soldiers, but it marked the first time since 2001 that the Taleban were able to take control of a major city in the country.

But US and Afghan officials insist that they will not allow another urban centre to be captured after after Kunduz was briefly overrun last year.