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Afghan forces have recaptured a district that briefly fell to Taliban insurgents, after heavy fighting forced thousands of people to flee their homes in the country's north-eastern Kunduz province.

Khan Abad district is around 30 kilometres east of Kunduz city. The provincial capital also fell briefly to the militants last year, the insurgents biggest victory since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001.

Khan Abad fell to the insurgents after they launched a pre-dawn surprise raid on the district centre on Saturday.

Several hours later Afghan special forces were deployed to the area - a key route to Kunduz city - to retake the district.

It was recaptured by government forces on Saturday evening, according to Sayed Mahmood Danish, a Kunduz governor spokesman.

"The Taliban are now being chased away. The threat to the city is gone. We are expanding our operations beyond the district," Interior Ministry Spokesman Sediq Sediqqi told AFP.

Fear remains

A shopkeeper in Khan Abad district, Khalid, told AFP that people were still worried about the Taliban making a return to the city.

"The roads are empty, few shops are open in the city. People do not have access to food and drinking water. We still cannot come out of our houses," he said.

Another resident, Mohammad Sahim, said the militants had looted and set fire to government buildings.

"People are in fear, you don't see many people in the streets, schools are closed," he said, adding that there is a danger of food shortages.

After the brief Kunduz city takeover - knocked back by US air raids and a government ground offensive - US and Afghan officials insisted that they would not allow another urban centre to be captured by the militants.

Earlier this month, the Taliban launched a major offensive in volatile southern Helmand province, surrounding the capital Lashkar Gah, a town of 200,000 inhabitants, but were stopped by Afghan forces supported by American air strikes.

The fighting in Helmand and Kunduz comes as Afghan troops are stretched on multiple fronts across Afghanistan - including eastern Nangarhar province where the Islamic State group is making inroads.