Afghan officials: Southern district remains in state control

Meanwhile, at an air base outside of Kabul, U.S. troops saluted fallen comrades during a memorial ceremony Wednesday for six American soldiers killed in a Taliban attack this week.

Staff Sgt. Peter Taub, 30, died Monday of wounds suffered when a suicide bomber on a motorcycle attacked a patrol near Bagram Air Base.

He added that hundreds of members of the security forces were besieged at the barracks.

Gaining control of the town is important to the Taliban as it sits on crucial smuggling routes for drugs and arms which helps fund it.

The “situation is under control” and normalcy is returning to the district, the provincial governor said without giving any details.

Fleeing residents reported Taliban executions of captured soldiers as the insurgents advanced on the district centre, compounding fears that the entire province was on the brink of falling into insurgent hands. “These factors complicate the battle for Sangin”.

The Taliban had claimed control of the Helmand province and the Afghan forces have been trying to recapture the area since.

A fertile region that is a key location in Afghanistan’s poppy trade, Sangin lies in the south of the country in an area that has traditionally been a Taliban heartland.

In his plea posted in Facebook over the weekend, Mohammad Jan Rasolyaar, deputy governor of Helmand province, initiated an open letter to Ghani.

But even with billions of dollars in aid, Afghan security forces still struggle to match the Taliban and hold on to Sangin, which is a small town with under 20,000 people.

“We need help, we can’t hold them for much longer”, he said. We can’t leave our trenches because the Taliban have snipers.

Nearly a quarter of United Kingdom casualties in Afghanistan took place fighting the Taliban in Sangin.

The Nato withdrawal of foreign troops has deprived the Afghans of much needed air power for strikes and medical evacuations. That’s made it almost impossible for the Afghan army to reinforce and resupply security force units who are essentially cut off by the Taliban’s advance.

Acting defence minister Masoom Stanekzai said fighting was ongoing in Sangin, but reinforcements had arrived to relieve troops. These troops are supposedly not to be deployed outside the camp, the ministry said.

The interior ministry said the Afghan army and police commandos launched an operation late on Wednesday, leading to the deaths of the Taliban commander and his fighters. “Same as before, they will face a bitter defeat and disgrace, as they faced in the past 14 years”.

Along with the Islamic State, the Taliban are on a Russian government list of terrorist organizations.

The war in Afghanistan has killed more than 3,400 troops from a U.S.-led North Atlantic Treaty Organisation coalition and left the Taliban diminished but not defeated.

Last October he announced a slowdown, saying the USA would retain a force of 9,800 through most of 2016, and then draw down to 5,500 starting sometime in 2017.