Afghan officials and Taliban sources in Afghanistan confirmed the Islamist insurgency has overrun another district in the southern Helmand province, which borders Pakistan.
Advertisement
“Mullah Mansour’s death shuffled Taliban leadership, exacerbated fighting, and left the future of the peace process uncertain”, the report said.
Earlier several other districts too came in control of the Taliban that includes Marjah, Garmser, Sangin and Dishu.
The militants were killed in the Achin district of the IS regional stronghold of Nangarhar during an operation by the Afghan army with air support from worldwide troops deployed in Afghanistan, Efe news quoted a government official as saying in a statement.
Zwak said 20 militants and one Afghan policemen were killed after dozens of Taliban fighters launched an attack on July 29 in the Kanashin district.
Helmand produces most of the world’s opium, which helps fund the Taliban.
Helmand is Afghanistan’s largest province and is notorious for being a major poppy-producing region.
A new report published by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says the Afghan government lost control of almost 5 percent of its territory between January and May 2016, despite the delayed U.S. troop withdrawal from the country, RFE/RL reported. The group also considers Helmand to be their heartland and something that is worth fighting for.
Abdul Rahman Rahimi, the Kabul chief of police, says the attackers were killed and none of the hotel’s residents were harmed.
He said that the bomb, which went off at around 9.30am, targeted Afghan security forces who were buying fruit and other supplies for their nearby base.
Advertisement
While the United States have been fighting the Taliban forces in 2001 until recent reduction in forces and a focus shift toward the Islamic State, the group has been trying to aggressively overthrow the Kabul Government.
