Taliban claim to overrun key district in Afghanistan

By Shadi Khan Saif

KABUL, Afghanistan (AA) - The Taliban on Thursday claimed to have taken a key district in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province.

Qari Yosuf Ahmad, the Taliban’s southern spokesman, said the district administration’s offices, police headquarters and the provincial reconstruction team’s offices were under the group’s control.

In an online message, he said hundreds of soldiers had been under siege for more than a month and had “escaped” the area, leaving a large cache of arms, military vehicles and ammunition behind.

Local facilities were hit by airstrikes to prevent the Taliban from using them.

Sangin has been one of the most heavily contested districts in Afghanistan since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion. U.S. and British troops suffered high casualty levels in Sangin before handing it over to Afghan security forces in 2013.

Bashir Ahmad, member of the provincial council, confirmed to Anadolu Agency that the Taliban had taken control of the district’s center. “We fear this move will have a negative impact on the rest of the province’s security,” he said.

However, the Defense Ministry in Kabul said security forces had made a “strategic retreat”.

“The Afghan National Security and Defense Forces have strategically moved back, as per the directives of the Ministry of Defense, to the Shakat Shela area in the district,” the ministry said in a statement.

No clashes between security forces and the Taliban were reported on Thursday. Sangin has twice been briefly overrun by the Taliban in the last two years.

The Taliban controls several large districts in Helmand and it has been attempting to take provincial capital Lashkar Gah for several months.