Taliban fighters captures more ground in Helmand, Afghanistan

A provincial official says Afghan forces are still battling to push the Taliban out of a strategic southern district in Helmand province.

Pakistan facilitated the first round of direct peace talks between the Afghan government and Taliban group in Islamabad this year but the second round of the talks scheduled in July failed with the disclosure of the death of Taliban founder and supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar.

“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”.

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

At least 75 per cent of Helmand had been captured by the Taliban, said reporter Mohammad Shafi Aziz: “Only the district centre building is under the control of the government in a few districts of Helmand”.

At his meeting with Mansour, Mr Putin is said to have offered financial support, military training and modern weapons in exchange for the Taliban’s co-operation with Russian aims.

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. For example, up to a quarter of the army’s troops are “ghost soldiers” who only exist on paper, so that officers can draw their pay. “In only one year, we took over responsibility”, he told a news conference in Kabul this week. And Pakistan doesn’t really control the Taliban, although it gives them a safe haven and can manipulate them to a limited extent.

“The liberation of dear Mosul will be achieved with the cooperation and unity of all Iraqis after the victory in Ramadi”, Abadi said in a statement on the state media website on Friday.

The fate of Sangin still hangs in the balance, with Taliban reinforcements flooding in.

Helmand is where most of the world’s lucrative opium crop is cultivated.

Taliban occupied local police offices, and released prisoners.

Many local people in Sangin are resentful of the Afghan government troops, whose military operations destroyed homes and farms. It also led to deep fissures in the group’s leadership, creating confusion about just who the Afghan government should be talking to.

“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.