Afghan forces had been trying to recapture the area, while the Taliban claimed control of.
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The spokesman for the Afghan army in Helmand, Guam Rasoul Zazai, said that Afghan military air strikes had also bombarded Taliban strongholds in Sangin overnight, killing 25 insurgents and wounding another 12.
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The Islamists broke through the frontlines of Sangin district on Sunday after days of pitched clashes with besieged Afghan forces, tightening their grip on the southern province.
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Afghan officials and tribal elders confirmed to ABC News that while fighting continues, key buildings have been reclaimed by Afghan forces.
The Taliban already held three Helmand districts as well as large parts of the rest of the province outside the main centres and control strategic roads, making it hard to reinforce and resupply security force units cut off by their advance. I haven’t gotten any reports that they are actually in Sangin, but I also haven’t been able to get any confirmation from the USA forces about what they’re actually doing there.
Ahead of his visit to Islamabad for the Heart of Asia conference, President Ghani said negotiations with Pakistan would be more effective than sitting-in for peace talks with the Taliban group.
The Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said on Wednesday that their fighters had seized the entire district including police and military installations and their flags had been raised.
The acting defence minister, Masoom Stanekzai, said reinforcements arrived on Wednesday afternoon.
All but two of Helmand’s 14 districts are effectively controlled or heavily contested by Taliban insurgents. One of the attacks, on a US special operations forces base outside Kabul, killed one U.S soldier and eight Afghan civilian contractors.
The stationing of foreign troops in Afghanistan is merely a symbolic gesture to show the global community cares about Afghanistan without any real intent to fight the Taliban, analysts told Sputnik.
SIEGEL: From what you say, it sounds that almost a year after North Atlantic Treaty Organisation forces officially ended the combat mission in Afghanistan, that the conflict in that country is not much closer to resolution.
However, an Afghan official said the government remains open to peace talks as long as the Taliban withdraws from the districts it now occupies.
“Rumors about Lashkar Gah (falling to the Taliban) are totally baseless because we don’t have fear of losing the districts, so there is no fear of losing the center”, Abdullah said.
“This is an issue that has to be clear in the negotiating process”, Mr Muzhda said.
The latest unrest in Helmand comes as President Ashraf Ghani has made a diplomatic outreach to Pakistan – the Taliban’s historic backers – aimed at restarting peace talks with the insurgents.
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Helmand-based civil society activist Sardar Mohammad Hamdard said that at least 200 civilians had been killed or wounded in Sangin in the recent fighting.
