-
Tips for becoming a good boxer - November 6, 2020
-
7 expert tips for making your hens night a memorable one - November 6, 2020
-
5 reasons to host your Christmas party on a cruise boat - November 6, 2020
-
What to do when you’re charged with a crime - November 6, 2020
-
Should you get one or multiple dogs? Here’s all you need to know - November 3, 2020
-
A Guide: How to Build Your Very Own Magic Mirror - February 14, 2019
-
Our Top Inspirational Baseball Stars - November 24, 2018
-
Five Tech Tools That Will Help You Turn Your Blog into a Business - November 24, 2018
-
How to Indulge on Vacation without Expanding Your Waist - November 9, 2018
-
5 Strategies for Businesses to Appeal to Today’s Increasingly Mobile-Crazed Customers - November 9, 2018
Afghan minister: Reinforcements rushed to southern district under Taliban attack
All but two of Helmand’s 14 districts are effectively controlled or heavily contested by the Taliban, who also recently came close to overrunning the provincial capital Lashkar Gah.
Advertisement
Britain on Tuesday said a small contingent of its troops had arrived in Camp Shorabak, the largest British base in Afghanistan before it was handed over to Afghan forces previous year.
The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack that happened near the Bagram Air Base when a motorcycle rigged with explosives targeted the troops. Two U.S. troops and an Afghan also were wounded in the attack, in the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since May 2013.
The Afghan army rushed more soldiers to Sangin, and officials said Thursday that Afghan forces carried out an overnight airdrop of supplies and ammunition to soldiers who were pinned down inside an army barracks. It sits on crucial smuggling routes for drugs, arms and other contraband which fund the insurgency.
Afghan government forces are holding out against a sustained Taliban onslaught in Sangin with the help of national and worldwide reinforcements.
Helmand province borders Pakistan and has always been a centre of the Taliban insurgency. “These factors complicate the battle for Sangin”.
The hardline insurgents said their fighters had seized the local government building and police station and that their flag was flying.
In his plea posted in Facebook over the weekend, Mohammad Jan Rasolyaar, deputy governor of Helmand province, initiated an open letter to Ghani.
It remains unclear whether the Taliban were fully in control of Sangin, with Afghan officials giving conflicting information about the state of their advance.
Stuart Gordon, a Helmand expert at the Chatham House think tank, told Britain’s Press Association news agency that Sangin held a special significance to the British as more than 100 British troops had been killed there.
Afghanistan’s security forces are taking on the Taliban alone, following the end of the global combat mission a year ago.
China and the US are pushing the Afghan government and neighboring Pakistan to restart peace talks with the Taliban.
The Taliban reiterated their jihad against the “foreign occupation” of Afghanistan until the last soldier has left the country. The fight for Sangin has been particularly ferocious, with officials saying that only the army base was still in government hands until Tuesday. But just one year later, many Afghans now believe the Taliban are winning the war as British troops deploy to the southern Helmand to help beleaguered Afghan troops regain control of a strategically important district in the poppy-producing province.
Civilians are fleeing the area after fears grew that the Taliban could capture the entire southern province.
Ian Wright, of Glasgow, who lost his son, Marine Gary Wright, 22, said: “I am totally opposed to troops back on the ground in Afghanistan”.
The worse problem is that Ghani won last year’s election only by massive fraud.
Advertisement
Russian Federation has opposed the Taliban for more than a decade as a potential vehicle for terror and instability. This district lies in the south of the country, an area that was traditionally the center or the heartland of the Taliban. It was a key focus of Nato’s involvement in Afghanistan.