U.S. air strikes hit Taliban in Sangin

On Tuesday, the United Kingdom deployed a group of military personnel to the southern Afghan province of Helmand, where Afghan government forces recently suffered a defeat to the Taliban.

The attack happened as Taliban fighters overran a strategic district in southern Helmand province, the scene of some of the deadliest fighting between the Taliban and global combat forces prior to the 2014 withdrawal, adding weight to Pentagon predictions that the insurgency is gaining strength.

Government forces, with the help of U.S. air strikes, have been trying to recapture the area from the Taliban, who say they are in control of the district.

However, Afghan officials deny the claims and say that they have pushed back the militants and regained control over the district.

Sangin is a prize for the Taliban as it sits on routes for drug, arms and other contraband that fund the insurgency.

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military advisers have been sent to Helmand, with an extra British contingent arriving this week, but officials say they have a purely advisory role and they have not confirmed reports that special forces units are present.

Fleeing residents reported Taliban executions of captured soldiers as the insurgents advanced on the district centre, compounding fears that the entire province was on the brink of a security collapse.

Reinforcements arrived Wednesday afternoon after being rushed to the region, the acting Defense Minister Masoom Stanekzai told reporters on Wednesday. He said the entire province was in danger of falling to the Taliban.

The police chief’s compound remained under attack, and food and ammunition were in short supply, Ashna said.

The Taliban has taken control of most of the strategic district of Sangin where heavy fighting continues. Adoctor at a local hospital, said 41people (37 civilians and 4 soldiers) had been killed.

“For that reason they would have not come with the intend to invade our country”, the statement said.

The Taliban issued a statement Thursday laying out conditions for a peace dialogue to end the war, now in its 14th year. Talk of a dialogue between the government in Kabul and the insurgents has resurfaced following a regional conference in the Pakistani capital earlier this month where hopes were raised that a process that was cancelled over the summer could be revived in the coming year.

Dozens of militants were killed in a parallel army clearance operation, including a key commander seen as a close confidante of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, the interior ministry said. It also led to deep fissures in the group’s leadership, creating confusion about just who the Afghan government should be talking to.

Political analyst Waheed Muzhda, formerly an official in the Taliban’s 1996-2001 administration, said the Taliban needed to sort out its leadership problems before it started talking about the peace process.