Afghan forces confident to fight against Taliban in Helmand

“US forces conducted two strikes in Sangin on December 23 against threats to the force”, a spokesman for the military coalition said.

Overnight, the Taliban captured parts of the center of Sangin district around the district governor’s compound, but the Afghan forces, bolstered by reinforcements, soon succeeded in driving them further out, said Akhtar Muhammad, a police commander in Sangin.

The Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Wednesday that their fighters had seized the entire district including police and military installations and their flags had been raised.

Mohammad Jan Rasolyaar, deputy governor of Helmand province, took an unusual step last weekend by posting an open letter to Ghani on Facebook asking for help.

Haqqani network comes under the umbrella of the Taliban and has been described by U.S. officials in the past as a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.

A fertile region that is a key location in Afghanistan’s poppy trade, Sangin lies in the south of the country in an area that has traditionally been a Taliban heartland.

“The problem is where the Afghan forces have to fend for themselves”, he said. “The Afghan army is likely to prevail in Sangine, as it did in Kunduz, but only after serious fighting”, Dobbins, who also was the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, and is now Distinguished Chair in Diplomacy and Security at the RAND Corporation, said. Gen. William Shoffner, head of public affairs at NATO’s Resolute Support base in the Afghan capital Kabul, said in a statement. The turmoil in Helmand, the deadliest Afghan province for British and United States forces over the past decade, underscores a rapidly unravelling security situation.

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

Though the Afghan military expressed confidence in their ability to retake the area, the fact that they keep losing those areas in the first place is reducing faith in the security forces’ ability to fight the Taliban on an even footing. “They are not deployed in a combat role and will not deploy outside the camp”, the statement said.

Ahead of his visit to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference, President Ghani said negotiations with Pakistan would be more effective than sitting-in for peace talks with the Taliban group.

“They [Taliban] put a lot of fighters a lot of weapons in Helmand province that is right in the border with Pakistan and most of the fighters and weapons come across the border, there is nothing that stops them”.

Insurgents have been fighting for control of Sangin for nearly a month, though the battle intensified a week ago as government reinforcements failed to arrive and Afghan security forces were pinned down inside an army base.