US Launches Airstrikes as Afghan Troops Aim to Retake Sangin District

Afghan planes also struck Taliban strongholds in Sangin, killing 25 insurgents and wounding another 12, said the Afghan army spokesman in Helmand, Guam Rasoul Zazai. But Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed insurgents had overrun the entire district, pinning down Afghan forces in a military base where trapped soldiers reported dire conditions.

The Taliban has been gaining territory across Afghanistan since spring, and Helmand Province was one of their main focuses.

“Americans brought Taliban to Qatar and told Taliban in 2010 and 2011, ‘We want to talk with you and we want to solve Afghanistan issue, Afghanistan problem peacefully.’ But during these several years, they never wanted to talk to Taliban”, said Wahid Mujda, Afghan Senior Political analyst.

An Afghan National Army soldier searches a passenger at a checkpoint on the way to the Sangin district of Helmand province, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2015.

Operations were slowed as insurgents began taking shelter in civilian homes, he said.

But why is Sangin, a town of just 14,000 people, so important?

The Taliban, who already control nearly all of Sangin district, said on Wednesday that they had captured police and administrative buildings in the district center, where small groups of police had been holding out. It sits on crucial smuggling routes for drugs, arms and other contraband which fund the insurgency.

“They recaptured the district and police headquarters and the wounded were evacuated”.

The troops, the British Ministry of Defence said in a statement, were “part of the UK’s ongoing contribution to NATO’s Resolute Support Mission”, the training, advisory, assistance and counterterror mission in Afghanistan.

The move comes two weeks after a regional conference held in Islamabad called for the resumption of Afghan-Taliban peace negotiations.

All but two of Helmand’s 14 districts are effectively controlled or heavily contested by the Taliban, who also recently came close to overrunning the provincial capital Lashkar Gah. The strategically important section of Helmand Province has been under siege by Taliban insurgents.

Pakistan facilitated the first round of direct peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban group in Islamabad this year but the second round of the talks scheduled in July failed with the disclosure of the death of Taliban founder and supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

Pakistan’s ambassador told Pajhwok Afghan News that the peace talks between the Taliban and Kabul would happen in the near future and the Islamabad was ready to do all it could in this regard.

“Generally, the government, and the parliament, judicial power, we all are working together unitedly, unanimously towards the peace talks and peace process”, said Khalid Pashtoon, member, Afghan National Assembly.