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Afghan, NATO forces struggle to take control of Sangin district
For weeks, the Taliban has been moving freely over large swaths of Helmand – a strategically important region known for its opium production.
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Rasolyaar mentioned Sangin district in his message, saying its main bazaar and the government office were under heavy attack by the Taliban.
A district in Helmand province threatened by the Taliban remains in the control of Afghan forces. Another local official, who spoke VICE News on the conditional of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, admitted that the police station and administrative headquarters had been overrun by the Taliban.
“We do find comfort in knowing that Heather and Jacob are no longer in the shadows and will be extended the rights and protections due any American military family as they move through this incredibly hard period in their lives”, said the posting from Military Partners and Families Coalition.
The US airstrikes – carried out on Wednesday – may have tipped the scales.
A spokesman for the Afghan army in Helmand, Guam Rasoul Zazai, said Afghan military air strikes had also bombarded Taliban strongholds overnight, killing 25 insurgents and wounding another 12.
Insurgents have been fighting for control of Sangin for nearly a month, though the battle intensified a week ago as government reinforcements failed to arrive and Afghan security forces were pinned down inside an army base.
The US conducted the two strikes in the vicinity of Sangin, after Afghanistan’s government called for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation help to defeat the Taliban fighters.
The militant group has taken over the entire district except for the police chief’s compound and another compound, where a battalion of the Afghan National Army is based, according to Shah Mahmood Ashna, a spokesman for the police chief in Helmand province.
This was denied by the Afghan defence ministry, who said fighting was continuing and that reinforcements had been sent.
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.
Reinforcements were rushed to the region, the acting Defense Minister Masoom Stanekzai told reporters on Wednesday, after the province’s deputy governor, Mohammad Jan Rasulyar, used his Facebook account to plead for help from central authorities.
He said plans to push back in Sangin had been in preparation for some time, but the government had to prioritize its military assets as the Taliban had been fighting across all corners of the country since the drawdown of the global combat mission past year.
Britain said a small contingent of its troops arrived in Camp Shorabak in Helmand to assist Afghan forces in an “advisory role”.
“In total the United Kingdom has around 450 troops in Afghanistan mentoring and supporting the Afghan National Defence and Security Forces and the Afghan Security Ministries”.
“Food, military equipment and ammunition have been dropped to the besieged Afghan security forces fighting against the Taliban to prevent a full fall of Sangin”, Satanikzai said.
Afghan government forces had been “thinly spread” over the whole country, he said, and had been trying their best to hold all areas.
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A female Air Force officer who was one of the first openly gay US service members to get married was identified on Tuesday as one of the six USA troops killed by a suicide bomber near Bagram air base in Afghanistan.