| A group of former mujahedin commanders warned the Taliban to get out of Helmand province or face a battle they cannot win. The commanders, headed by the anti-Soviet war hero Maulvi Atta Mohammed, said they now had 400 troops in Helmand province and could raise many times that amount if the Taliban did not go quietly. They dispatched a delegation to the provincial capital Lashkar Gah in a bid to reach a peaceful resolution but were ready to fight. They had taken control of the desert border towns of Chotto and Bramacha which had already been deserted by Taliban troops. |