Afghan forces fight to push back Taliban in Helmand

The Taliban statement regarding the British troops deployment said that before entering Afghanistan “they should have studied the history of their ancestors and should have learned a lesson from the repeated defeat”.

Taliban claim to have captured almost the entire district of Sangin after storming its frontlines last Sunday, tightening their grip on the southern Helmand province.

Government officials yesterday denied reports that Sangin was on the brink of falling to the Taleban, saying reinforcements were trying to relieve dozens of security forces holed up in the district centre.

Sangin is a prize for the Taliban as it sits on routes for drug, arms and other contraband that fund the insurgency. “Afghan security forces are inside the police headquarters”.

“The Taliban have made big advances in Helmand province in summer and into the winter and the offensive is increasing”, he said.

“If Sangin falls, much of the north of Helmand is very much under Taliban control”, he said. Gen. William Shoffner, head of public affairs at NATO’s Resolute Support base in the Afghan capital Kabul, said in a statement. The enemy never took control of Sangin district.

And apart from the Taliban’s success on the battlefield, divisions in the ranks of the militant group is also complicating the peace process.

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.

Helmand-based civil society activist Sardar Mohammad Hamdard said that at least 200 civilians had been killed or wounded in Sangin in the recent fighting.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has sought to mend ties with longtime regional nemesis Pakistan – the Taliban’s historic backers – in a bid to restart peace talks with the insurgents.

In Washington, White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the nation’s thoughts and prayers are with the victims, their families and their loved ones, and that the US will continue to work jointly with Afghans to promote peace and stability in their country.

The British and United States intervention has fuelled the perception that foreign powers are increasingly being drawn back into the conflict as Afghan forces struggle to rein in the Taliban.

The announcement in July that the Taliban founder and leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, had been dead for more than two years saw the group pull out of a dialogue process after only one meeting in Pakistan between representatives of each side.