Frequent fighting between Afghanistan gov’t troops and Taliban

The turmoil in Helmand, the deadliest province for British and USA forces in Afghanistan over the past decade, underscores a rapidly unravelling security situation in Afghanistan.

The spokesman for the Afghan army in Helmand, Guam Rasoul Zazai, said that Afghan military air strikes had also bombarded Taliban strongholds in Sangin overnight, killing 25 insurgents and wounding another 12. And I think the past six months where the Taliban have really gained territory, even though they haven’t managed to hold any important districts – this shows that the Taliban are still able to make the countryside, especially, very insecure.

The crisis in Sangin has demonstrated the weakness of the Afghan central government.

“We are still fighting to push back the Taliban”. 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 order to support the local forces, the UK Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday that British troops had been sent to the province after the Afghan Defense Minister requested worldwide support and air cover. But I think the reason we hear a lot about Sangin at the moment is because it has enormous symbolic value and enormous emotional value for especially the United Kingdom but also the USA and some other European countries who were there.

A senior Afghan militant commander has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin held an unpublicised meeting with Taliban chief Akhtar Mansour to discuss possible Russian support for the insurgents.

“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.

“The problem is where the Afghan forces have to fend for themselves”, he said.

The Afghan army would be collapsing a good deal faster if so much of the Taliban’s attention were not focused on fighting off the challenge from Islamic State. On Aug. 22, three American contractors with the RS base were killed in a suicide attack in Kabul. One of the attacks, on a USA special operations forces base outside Kabul, killed one U.S soldier and eight Afghan civilian contractors.

Government forces have complained bitterly of inadequate supplies and reinforcements and little of the air power that backed up North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces when they fought in the region.

SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN: Fighting has gone back and forth, and on Wednesday night local time, the Taliban managed to seize control of the government compound for four to five hours.