District besieged by Taliban still under Afghan control

General Abdul Wodud, a senior army commander, said a joint Afghan and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation operation backed by air support had driven the Taliban back from central areas, killing 60 Taliban fighters and wounding 40.

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

Britain on Tuesday said a small contingent of its troops had arrived in Camp Shorabak, the largest British base in Afghanistan before it was handed over to Afghan forces past year. A Taliban spokesperson later said: “Sangin district has completely collapsed to the Taliban”.

In Washington, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the nation’s thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and their loved ones, and that the USA will continue to work jointly with Afghans to promote peace and stability in their country.

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

The acting defence minister, Masoom Stanekzai, said reinforcements arrived on Wednesday afternoon.

The Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police forces killed a number of Taliban fighters and their commander in Thursday’s military operation, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry told CNN.

Aktar Mohammad, a provincial council member, said Friday that the situation is unchanged in the Sangin district, where intense battles have raged for a week after the Taliban overrun much of the area. Afghan officials say 50 Taliban militants have been killed in three days of fighting, and that the district is still in government forces’ hands. He said the entire province was in danger of falling to the Taliban.

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

The announcement in July that the Taliban founder and leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for more than two years saw the group pull out of a dialogue process after only one meeting in Pakistan between representatives of each side. It also led to deep fissures in the group’s leadership, creating confusion about just who the Afghan government should be talking to.

Almost a quarter of all British troops who died in Afghanistan were killed in the town.

“It was significant because of the routes it controlled and it was a very significant part of the resourcing of the political economy of Helmand, because it is a major center of drugs processing and drugs shipping”, said Gordon.