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Afghanistan
20 Afghan soldiers surrender to Taliban
2016-08-05
In a video released on Thursday by the Taliban, the insurgent group claim that at least 20 Afghan National Army (ANA) soldiers surrendered to them in the Nad Ali district of the southern province of Helmand.

This comes amid ongoing heavy clashes between security forces and the Taliban in the area.

However, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) has rejected these claims.

The news of the soldiers surrendering to the Taliban has meanwhile drawn strong reaction from Helmand MPs - with some blasting government for the poor leadership of the war against the militants and its failure to tackle the problem.

In the video one of the soldiers appears to be wouded. He has his head bandaged and is on a drip.

"When you are at war, or you get wounded or killed or taken captive, this is totally different from surrendering, we reject it," MoD spokesman Dawlat Waziri said.

This latest development comes at a time that embattled Afghan security forces continue their military campaign against the Taliban on multiple fronts in Helmand, Badakhshan, Sar-e-Pul, Jawzjan, Kunduz, Nangarhar, Kunar, Ghazni and Zabul provinces.

"Both the US and our own leaders including the Resolute Support mission have failed to deliver on their promises, therefore Afghanistan is at war and the enemy has infiltrated in all regions of the country," said military expert Atiqullah Amarkhail.

The scale of violence and the Taliban insurgency increased dramatically in Afghanistan over the past two years.

"They (soldiers) were not delivered equipment and weapons and reinforcements on time, some of the soldiers were forced to surrender including their weapons," said senator Hashim Akokozai.

"The war has dramatically increased over the past two years since the national unity government was formed, we have contacts in Helmand and soldiers were saying we are fighting, but weapons were not sent to them," said MP Ghulam Hussain Nasiri.

It is said that the Taliban currently control ten districts across the nation with another 116 districts under serious threat - while 91 district are under what is considered medium threat.

Video report at the link
Posted by:badanov

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