Twenty civilians killed in battle between Afghan forces and Taliban

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.

The police chief’s compound remained under attack, and food and ammunition were in short supply, Ashna said. Wounded forces have been ferried out.

A Taliban commander said that his group had been promised Russian arms and financial support only weeks before a resurgence in violence that has seen key districts in the southern province of Helmand fall under Taliban control.

The Afghan forces had some support from the U.S., the spokesman for NATO’s Operation Resolute Support told CNN on Thurs.

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.

Almost a quarter of all British troops who died in Afghanistan were killed in the town. Then, in May of 2014, he said virtually all American forces would be out of Afghanistan by the end of 2016.

“Rumors about Lashkar Gah (falling to the Taliban) are totally baseless because we don’t have fear of losing the districts, so there is no fear of losing the center”, Abdullah said. News storiesdisplayed here appear in our category for global and are licensed via a specific agreement between LongIsland.comand The Associated Press, the world’s oldest and largest news organization.

“Sangin became fairly totemic for the British because of the number of soldiers lost”, he said.

The fate of Sangin still hangs in the balance, with Taliban reinforcements flooding in. What is the strategic importance of the district?

“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”.

However, Helmand’s deputy governor, Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar, denied the claim.

“The government [fighters] have been able to get control of the police headquarters and the district chief’s office”, he said.

“In total the United Kingdom has around 450 troops in Afghanistan mentoring and supporting the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces and the Afghan Security Ministries”.

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.

“They’re fine as long as they’re being assisted and they’re being provided air cover and things like that by Western forces”.