Government forces have been trying to recapture the area from the Taliban, who say they control the district.
Afghan officials say they have retaken key buildings in a counter-attack, and the US has carried out air strikes.
The ministry named the dead commander as Mullah Nasir, a confidant of Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour.
Strategically located, and a centre for opium production, Sangin would be a significant gain for the Taliban.
Fighting around the town escalated this week and by Wednesday the militants said they had captured all of Sangin, pinning down government troops in an army barracks.
This was denied by the Afghan defence ministry, who said fighting was continuing and that reinforcements had been sent.
The interior ministry said the Afghan army and police commandos launched an operation late on Wednesday, leading to the deaths of the Taliban commander and his fighters......http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35174126
24/12/15
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U.S. aircraft carried out two attacks in the district of Sangin in Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand, overrun by Taliban militants earlier this week, officials say...
ReplyDeleteFighting is reported to be continuing between Afghan forces and Taliban militants for the strategically important district.
The Taliban says its forces now control almost all of Sangin district and that they have captured police and administrative buildings in the center.
However, Afghan officials deny the claims and say that they have pushed back the militants and regained control over the district.
A U.S. spokesman for the NATO mission in Afghanistan said that the U.S. military conducted two air strikes near Sangin before midnight.
Sangin is an important poppy-growing district in Helmand, which borders Pakistan and sits on transport routes for drugs, arms, and other lucrative contraband..............http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan-helmand-us-air-strikes/27446890.html
Confusion, corruption among Afghan forces hit Helmand defence...
ReplyDeleteMore foreign troops died fighting in Helmand than in any other province in Afghanistan but little more than a year after NATO left, the region risks being overrun by the Taliban because of confusion, corruption and mismanagement in Afghan forces.
Sangin is the latest Helmand district to slip into Taliban control, badly denting hopes that Afghan security forces would be able to fight on alone after international forces pulled out last year.
Sarwar Jan is the commander of a police battalion that has been heavily engaged in Sangin and Marjah, another district mostly in Taliban hands, and he is scathing about Afghan army units he says left his isolated, under-equipped men to fight alone.
"We call them up for reinforcement when there is an attack, but they won't respond. So our forces are like: 'If they don't cooperate, why should we help them?'" he said.
It is a picture familiar from the disaster in the northern city of Kunduz where last September Taliban fighters drove off demoralized and disorganized security forces and seized the town before pulling out two weeks later.
Units in Helmand have been left to fight for months on end with inadequate supplies and reinforcements. Corruption has siphoned off supplies and some units are under-strength because of ghost troops - deserters who are not reported so that officials can pocket their pay.
"In one battalion, the official strength is 400 but the actual number is around 150," said Ataullah Afghan, a member of provincial council in Helmand. "There is intelligence failure, lack of coordination, huge corruption in terms of selling fuel, ghost troops and much else," he said.
Helmand, a longstanding Taliban stronghold and the source of most of the opium that helps fund the movement, has always been difficult to control.............http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/confusion-corruption-amo/2376932.html
25/12/15