Afghan insurgency fight: Taliban captures Helmand

Government officials, however, have denied the claim and said they have pushed back Taliban insurgents.

According to eyewitnesses, some government forces were still fighting in the district centre but are cut off.

He conceded that many important districts in Helmand had been under prolonged Taliban attack, including Khanshin on the Pakistan border and Marjah, and that the provincial capital Lashkar Gah had also been targeted by the insurgents.

The same helicopter also evacuated six more injured security personnel and five dead bodies from Sangin district, Wahab added.

Bagram, around 40 km (25 miles) north of Kabul, is one of the main bases for the remaining 9,800 USA troops in Afghanistan after worldwide troops ended combat operations past year.

In his plea posted in Facebook over the weekend, Mohammad Jan Rasolyaar, deputy governor of Helmand province, initiated an open letter to Ghani. It provides training, advice and assistance – as well as substantial funding – to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces. Nearly a quarter of United Kingdom casualties in Afghanistan took place fighting the Taliban in Sangin.

The Taliban on Wednesday slammed the British deployment after a year ago s pullout as “a sign of stupidity” and threatened to target the “newly arrived invaders”.

Britain has sent a small contingent of soldiers to Helmand as advisers under the new North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mandate to train the Afghan forces.

He said the operation was launched late on Wednesday night and a key Taliban commander was killed during the operation. “Otherwise they will lose the district and all the forces will be killed”.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said insurgents had overrun the whole of Sangin, pinning down Afghan forces in a military base where trapped soldiers reported dire conditions.

Helmand is not the only province where the Taliban have made gains.

Although there are signs that the popularity of the Islamic State is growing in Afghanistan, including the Caliphate Radio station that broadcasts Islamic State propaganda every morning, the Taliban remain a far more potent force there.

In the same interview on Wednesday, Kabulov said Russian Federation would be “ready to supply weapons” to Afghanistan but “will do it with due prudence and mostly on a commercial basis”. These troops are supposedly not to be deployed outside the camp, the ministry said. The loss “serves as a painful reminder of the dangers our troops face every day in Afghanistan”, he said.

She declined to discuss what information had been shared.