Afghan Taliban close to capturing strategically important town

The Taliban militant group claimed responsibility for the attack.

The official said that two other US soldiers were injured.

He said: “Whatever help that’s needed would be gratefully received and I think it would be a good thing to do because ultimately the beneficiary of this is going to be primarily Afghanistan, Afghans, but also the rest of us, because look at the region, what’s happening, and Afghanistan has a chance of success”. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

In a statement issued Monday night, the NY police commissioner, William J. Bratton, said that Detective Lemm was one of the Americans killed.

Carter called the attack “a painful reminder of the dangers our troops face every day in Afghanistan”.

This month, the Taliban has attacked the airport in Kandahar, leaving dozens dead, and bombed the Spanish embassy compound in Kabul, killing a Spanish police officer.

On August 22, three American contractors were killed in a suicide attack in Kabul.

Also, on Sunday, several bombs exploded in Kabul near the diplomatic zone but there have been no reports of any casualties.

“Because if the people we were trying to free Afghanistan from are now able to just take it back within two years, that shows that something went badly wrong at the operational and strategic level”.

Sangin was handed over to American forces five years ago – and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ended its combat mission in Afghanistan a year ago. They have a mandate to “train, assist and advise” their Afghan counterparts, who are now effectively fighting alone a battle-hardened Taliban.

He said the Afghan police were holding out against Taliban fighters who had surrounded their compound and the district governor’s building in Sangin but roads into the town were completely controlled by the Taliban.

American military leaders suggest the string of Taliban attacks is an attempt to demonstrate superiority over newly independent Afghan forces. He told reporters the Afghan air force had conducted 160 combat and transport flights over Sangin in the past 48 hours.

Helmand is a traditional stronghold of the Taliban and one of the biggest centers of opium production, which helps fund the insurgency.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousaf said the siege continued “and the government will soon announce their defeat”.

Instead, a redoubtable insurgency drew the military into some of the fiercest fighting British forces had experienced since the Second World War.

Currently, there are almost 10,000 US troops in Afghanistan.

Helmand’s governor, Mirza Khan Rahimi, said the authorities were still in control of the key town within Helmand province.

Around 65 percent of Helmand is now thought to be under Taliban control. For weeks now, members of the Taliban have also been holed up in Babaji, a Lashkar Gah suburb.

In recent months, Afghan security forces have been overwhelmed by a series of militant offensives revealing the government’s vulnerability when it doesn’t have substantial foreign firepower to support it. A Pentagon report released this month found that insurgents are improving their ability to “find and exploit” Afghan government vulnerabilities.