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| Afghanistan | |
| Civilians Flee as Clashes Erupt in Helmand | |
| 2015-10-22 | |
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... Wednesday after the Taliban stormed an outlying neighborhood, triggering festivities as the holy warriors step up offensives around the country. The Taliban late Tuesday seized some police checkpoints in Babaji, a suburb of Lashkar Gah city, but the interior ministry said commando units mounted a swift counter-attack, flushing out the faceless myrmidons from the area. "The situation is under control. The enemy have been pushed back, 25 of their fighters have been killed," ministry front man Sediq Sediqqi told AFP. Afghan forces were also battling the Taliban in Nad Ali and Greshk districts close to Lashkar Gah, where holy warriors captured a number of security posts, provincial governor Mirza Khan Rahimi said. The fighting, which sent scores of families fleeing to neighboring provinces, has also threatened the highway which links the major southern city of Kandahar with 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 Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the Worldand didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... The violence in Helmand comes precisely a year after the Camp Bastion base, a hub for British forces, was turned over to local troops. The province, a Taliban hotbed where U.S. and British troops were involved in years of fierce fighting, is also one of the world's biggest centers of opium cultivation. Emboldened by their brief capture of northern Kunduz city late last month, the holy warriors have launched multiple offensives around the country, a development seen as a key test for overstretched Afghan forces. Afghan troops were gearing up for a major offensive to retake the district of Ghormach in northern Faryab province. As many as two dozen Afghan coppers including the district police chief were feared to be killed or captured after the Taliban on the weekend overran the district center close to the border with Turkmenistan, official said. Sediqqi declined to give any details about the offensive. Taliban front man Zabiullah Mujahid claimed on his Twitter account that holy warriors had detained the district police chief. Afghanistan's first vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum ...ethnic Uzbek warlord who distinguished himself fighting the Soviets and the Taliban. The story that he had a bad guy run over with a tank is an exaggeration. It was an armored personnel carrier... , a former warlord with no formal position in the military, arrived in northern Afghanistan on Tuesday to oversee anti-Taliban operations. In the wake of recent Taliban gains, U.S. president Barak Obama last week announced a major policy reversal on Afghanistan that will see 5,500 U.S. troops remain in the country when he leaves office in January 2017 despite his earlier pledge to pull out next year. | |
| Posted by:trailing wife |