Afghan forces struggle to beat back Taliban

Afghan officials say they have retaken key buildings in a counter-attack, and the US has carried out air strikes.

The spokesman for the Afghan army in Helmand, Guam Rasoul Zazai, said that Afghan military air strikes had also bombarded Taliban strongholds in Sangin overnight, killing 25 insurgents and wounding another 12.

In the year since the global drawdown, the Taliban insurgency has intensified.

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.

In a separate incident in neighbouring Helmand province, where the Taliban has been increasing pressure for weeks, insurgents captured the district of Khanishin, a major control point for drug smuggling routes through the south. Fourteen policemen were killed and 11others wounded, provincial council chief Karim Atal said.

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. Roads around the district center had been mined by the insurgents, he said, adding that “at no time did Sangin fall, Sangin is not going to fall”. However, District Governor Asif Nang rejected the claim as “baseless” and said the District Governor’s headquarters, have been relocated. The turmoil in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and United States forces in Afghanistan over the past decade, underscores a rapidly unravelling security situation in Afghanistan mandating a refocus for worldwide troops still stationed in the country. Adoctor at a local hospital, said 41people (37 civilians and 4 soldiers) had been killed.

The Taliban issued a statement Thursday laying out conditions for a peace dialogue to end the war, now in its 14th year.

This comes as the Afghan and Pakistani leadership discussed the stalled Afghan peace talks during the Heart of Asia conference in the capital city of Pakistan earlier this month.

The commander killed within the offensive is taken in to account to be an in depth confidant of the leader of the Taliban, Mullah Akhtar Mohammad Mansour, officers stated. It also led to deep fissures in the group’s leadership, creating confusion about just who the Afghan government should be talking to.

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 previous year.

“This is an issue that has to be clear in the negotiating process”, Muzhda said.