Taliban insurgents killed in Afghan Special Forces operation in Helmand

The Afghan government on Wednesday dismissed reports on the fall of Sangin district to Taliban militants as groundless, but admitted that clash has been continuing there.

Fleeing residents reported Taliban executions of captured soldiers as the insurgents advanced on the district centre, fuelling fears that the province was on the brink of falling into insurgent hands.

The besieged collection of Afghan soldiers and police had little choice, they could surrender to the Taliban fighters who had swept into Sangin days earlier, or they would soon be killed.

It was in December previous year that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation handed over the security operations in Sangin to the Afghans.

Hundreds of Afghan security forces have been killed fighting the Taliban across the province in the past six months, Helmand’s deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasulyar said.

Afghanistan’s embattled security forces needed global military help, especially air support, which would help reduce casualties, Mr Stanekzai told reporters.

Sangin is an important prize for the Taliban as it sits on crucial smuggling routes for drugs, arms and other contraband which fund the insurgency.

Taliban forces first entered Sangin on Sunday.

There are reports of fighting across Helmand, a traditional Taliban stronghold and opium-growing district, which British and U.S. forces fought for years to control. “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.

The insurgents are prone to exaggerating its battlefield successes, and Kabul officials denied that Sangin had fallen.

United States defence chiefs now admit the Afghan army is locked in a “tough fight” against a determined foe, supported within Pakistan and under new leadership since the death of Mullah Mohammed Omar.

A team of around 10 British soldiers has been deployed to Camp Shorabak in Helmand as part of a wider North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mission to help local forces.

Sangin became symbolically important for Britain when it claimed 106 lives – almost a quarter of the nations’ dead – during the 13-year-long combat mission in Afghanistan.

He said: “Support troops have been airdropped at a distance… but all roads are blocked and in the militants” control’.

It may be mentioned that Taliban have nearly won Helmand province and moving towards Herat after leaving Nanghahar province for Daesh terrorist organisation.

The Taliban issued a statement saying that foreign forces were directly involved in the fighting in Sangin and accusing them of carrying out airstrikes on residential areas.

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.