Afghan and coalition soldiers on Wednesday recaptured the second of two towns that had been overrun by the Taliban, Afghan and U.S. officials said. Hundreds of troops battled Taliban fighters and entered the Helmand provincial town of Garmser, which insurgents had captured Sunday, said General Rahmatullah Roufi, the Afghan Army commander in the country's south. "Our troops launched an attack on Garmser and thank God we captured it," Roufi said. He declined to provide details.A purported Taliban statement threatened "severe" action in the coming days. The operation in Garmser followed an offensive against Taliban militants about 32 kilometers, or 20 miles, to the north in Naway-i-Barakzayi, which the insurgents captured Monday but apparently abandoned.
A spokesman for the U.S. military, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Fitzpatrick, said Afghan and coalition forces "skirmished" with Taliban fighters outside Garmser but met no resistance once inside. "The Taliban appears to be bullying their way around some of the smaller towns in remote areas but they have no capability to lay claim to any piece of ground," Fitzpatrick said. Two Afghan soldiers were wounded in the operation, and the deputy governor of Helmand Province said two Taliban were also killed.
