After days of fierce fighting, it was claimed that the Taliban were in control of the local government building and police station.
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The Minister of Defense Masoom Stanikzai told reporters on Wednesday that foreign militants are mainly fighting the Afghan security fores in Helmand province.
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Stanekzai pleaded for patience, saying Afghan forces were fighting without the extensive array of tactical “enablers” from close air support and helicopters to surveillance assets that North Atlantic Treaty Organisation troops had used when they were involved.
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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.
“The Sangin district centres, its police headquarters, and other establishments were under continued attacks of the mujahideen and today… with God’s grace the district was fully captured by the mujahideen”.
“Those who make such comments do not care to defend Helmand”.
The deputy governor of Helmand said all lines of communication with the town had been cut and there was no information as to what was happening inside.
The Taliban said in an online statement that the district centre of Sangin had been completely overrun with large quantities of weapons and equipment captured but army spokesman Mohammad Rasoul Zarzai dismissed the claims as “baseless”.
If the Taliban took control of Sangin, they would control supply routes to the districts and gain valuable influence over neighboring provinces, he said.
Afghan forces have struggled to contain the insurgency since overseas troops stood down combat operations past year.
Ian Wright, whose son Gary was killed when his vehicle was caught in a suicide blast in Lashkar Gah in 2006, said: “I am totally opposed to troops back on the ground in Afghanistan, whatever roles they are carrying out”.
There are unconfirmed reports that British special forces are also advising Afghan troops around Sangin. It’s not that we are afraid of death, but we didn’t think that our brothers would leave us like this’.
Britain has sent a small contingent of soldiers to Helmand to help Afghan forces as advisers under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation mandate.
But the loss of Sangin, which British and US forces fought for years to control, would also be a heavy blow for Western powers backing the Kabul government, now fighting alone since global forces ended combat operations last year. In spite of repeated calls for help addressed to the central government in Kabul, no reinforcements were sent.
All but two of Helmand’s 14 districts are effectively controlled or heavily contested by Taliban insurgents.
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He said: “It is important that the West honours its commitment to protect the Afghan people as well as the memory of those who fought and died there to keep us safe from extremism”.
