Taliban forces have taken almost full control of a key district in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province after several days of fierce fighting, a police official told CNN on Monday.
The Taliban took over the entire district except for the police chief’s compound and another compound where a battalion of Afghan National Army is based in, according to Mohammad Dawood, the police chief of Sangin district in the province.
Dawood said the fighting in the district had been going on for more than a month, but was in its worst stage in the past three days.
He added that they have sustained heavy casualties and are almost out of ammunition.
Mohammad Jan Rasolyaar, deputy governor of Helmand province, took an unusual step over the weekend to ask President Ashraf Ghani for help in an open letter on Facebook.
He said he had no other options left to deliver his message and explain the real situation in Helmand to the President but to turn to Facebook.
Rasolyaar said people around the President didn’t want him to know about the reality on the ground there.
He warned that all Helmand province could fall to the Taliban if the President didn’t take any action to save it.
Rasolyaar mentioned Sangin district in his message, saying its main bazaar and the government office were under heavy attack by the Taliban. During the recent intense fighting in Sangin and Greshk districts, 90 Afghan security forces had been killed, he said.plosion kills 6 officers in Kabul; Taliban claims