Afghanistan\u2019s southern province of Helmand is on the verge of falling to the Taliban, with 90 soldiers killed in fierce clashes, its deputy governor said Sunday, imploring Kabul for intervention in an unusual Facebook post.
\nThe warning bore grim similarities to the security situation that led to the brief fall of the northern city of Kunduz in September — the biggest Taliban victory in 14 years of war.
\nClashes between insurgents and government forces have intensified in several key districts of Helmand, fueling concern that the opium-rich province is on the brink of a security collapse.
\n\u201cI know that bringing up this issue on social media will make you very angry,\u201d deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar wrote in a Facebook post addressed to President Ashraf Ghani.
\n\u201cBut I cannot be silent any more… as Helmand stands on the brink… Ninety men have been killed in Gereshk and Sangin districts in the last two days.\u201d
\nRasoolyar pleaded for urgent assistance to save the province that British and U.S. forces struggled for years to defend, saying he had been unsuccessful in making contact with the president through other means.
\nThe fall of Helmand would deal another stinging blow to the country’s NATO-backed forces as they struggle to rein in the ascendant insurgency.
\nRasoolyar alleged that government officials around Ghani are downplaying the gravity of the situation in the province.
\nThere was no immediate reaction on Rasoolyar\u2019s post from Ghani’s office. The defence ministry in Kabul strongly denied that Helmand would fall and rejected claims of 90 deaths.
\nBut local officials backed Rasoolyar\u2019s assertions, saying that fighting was particularly worse in the northern district of Sangin, which has long been a hornet\u2019s nest of insurgent activity.
\nSome reports late Sunday said insurgents had overrun the district, with government employees fleeing the area after large casualties, but there was no official confirmation.
\nHighlighting the deteriorating situation, U.S. special forces have been sent to Helmand in recent weeks to assist Afghan forces, a senior Western official told AFP.
\nThis month marks a year since the U.S.-led NATO mission in Afghanistan transitioned into an Afghan-led operation, with allied nations assisting in training local forces.
\nPresident Barack Obama in October announced that thousands of US troops would remain in Afghanistan past 2016, backpedalling on previous plans to shrink the force and acknowledging that Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone.
\nGhani has been pushing to jump-start peace talks with the Taliban, which stalled after the insurgents belatedly confirmed longtime leader Mullah Omar\u2019s death earlier this year.
\nAfghanistan\u2019s spy agency chief resigned earlier this month after a scathing Facebook post that vented frustration over Ghani\u2019s diplomatic outreach to Pakistan — the Taliban\u2019s historic backers — aimed at restarting the talks.
\nRahmatullah Nabil\u2019s resignation raised uncomfortable questions about a brewing leadership crisis in Afghanistan as the insurgency gains new momentum.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Source: Alarabiya<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Afghanistan\u2019s southern province of Helmand is on the verge of falling to the Taliban, with 90 soldiers killed in fierce clashes, its deputy governor said Sunday, imploring Kabul for intervention in an unusual Facebook post.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":5270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c59-islamic-world"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n