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Afghan forces pushed back a major Taliban assault with the help of the US
[BUSINESSINSIDER] Afghan forces backed by U.S. air strikes pushed back a Taliban onslaught Thursday in a strategically important district in the southern Afghan province of Helmand...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , officials said. Sangin district had been besieged by the bully boyz for weeks before an uptick in the ferocity of the fight this week sparked concerns it could fall to Taliban control. But civilian and military officials said Sangin remained in government hands after the United States conducted two The presence of a small contingent of British troops, who arrived in the Shorab base -- formerly Britannia's Camp Bastion during their Afghan combat mission -- on Wednesday had helped boost morale of both civilians and security forces, officials said. Overnight, the Taliban captured parts of the center of Sangin district around the district governor's compound, but the Afghan forces, bolstered by reinforcements, soon succeeded in driving them further out, said Akhtar Muhammad, a police commander in Sangin. "An hour later we recaptured that building and now we have it," he told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named. In recent days, the Taliban assault has threatened to overrun Sangin, a major poppy-growing area in Helmand, raising alarm that Afghan forces were too overstretched to fend off the insurgency. The Taliban this week pronounced they had seized control of the district, but the claim was widely refuted by Afghan officials. Posted by: Fred 2015-12-25 |
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