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Fighting Continues in Key Areas of Lashkargah for 2nd Day
[ToloNews] Clashes continued in key parts of Lashkargah city in District 1 near the police headquarters and the provincial governor’s office on Sunday, causing concerns to ratchet up over the situation in the province.

Security sources said many parts of the city have fallen to the Taliban
...Arabic for students...
in recent weeks.

Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
MPs said that the city will be out of the government’s control if it does not receive support.

"The fighting has reached District 1 and is 100 meters or 200 meters away from the provincial governor’s compound. Fighting is underway to capture the base in the province and the people are concerned," said Ghulam Wali Afghan, an MP from Helmand.

"Clashes are underway near the Helmand governor’s compound, the police headquarters and the NDS office. They will fall if attention is not paid to them," said Karim Atal, an MP from Helmand.

But ANDSF front man Gen. Omar Shinwari said strong defensive lines have been established in Helmand, Herat
...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns...
and Kandahar and that there are no serious problems in the cities of these provinces.

TOLOnews findings show that 70 districts, as well as the Spin Boldak border town, fell to the Taliban in July. The government said that 11 districts had been retaken from the Taliban in July, but five of them--Yaftal in Badakhshan, Chakhansur in Nimroz, Malistan in Ghazni, Garmsir in Helmand and Guzara in Herat--have once again fallen to the Taliban.

"We will witness a worse situation if reforms are not brought to the leadership of military units," said Mehrabuddin Safi, a military affairs analyst.

Insecurity has also affected Kabul. In a recent incident, unknown button men attacked a police vehicle in the Company area west of Kabul, killing a police officer and two civilians and wounding three more.

TOLOnews findings show that for just the month of July, 313 civilians and 239 security force members were maimed in security incidents and Taliban attacks. The figures show that 700 civilians and 216 security force members were maimed during this period.

The government said that the Taliban has sustained heavy casualties during this time.

Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin's take:
Heavy street fighting continues in Lashkar Gah, including artillery. The Taliban issued an ultimatum to the military, demanding that they surrender by tomorrow morning. The military sends barkers in the forest and refuses to surrender, which is why street fighting continues.

The military continues to launch airstrikes in the vicinity of Lashkar Gakh and claim that the Taliban lost 36 people in 24 hours of fighting. Up to two battalions of infantry were deployed to the city (including by air).

Meanwhile, in the evening the Taliban began attempts to storm the city prison (where Taliban prisoners are held), which is one of the city's defense centers. The Taliban forces storming Lashkar Gah are estimated to be equivalent to a light infantry brigade.

Video from the very center of Lashkar Gakh (1830 local time).

Sources of CNN say that by the evening of August 1, the government controlled only one district of Lashkar Gakh, in the rest the defenses collapsed, and in a number of areas the police simply dispersed.

More:
Defense of government forces in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, began to crumble today. Despite the bravura reports from pro-Taliban sources that the city has already been captured, the fighting in the city is still ongoing, but there are signs of the disintegration of organized resistance and the fragmentation of the defense into separate unconnected nodes.

The Taliban are very close to capturing the first provincial capital since the start of the spring offensive and effectively taking full control of the entire province of Helmand.
Posted by: trailing wife 2021-08-02
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=608734