The Taliban are giving a tough fight to the Afghan government forces. After a string of gains across the country, the insurgents are now on the verge of capturing the southern province of Helmand. Ninety soldiers have been killed in fierce clashes, forcing the region’s deputy governor to send distress signals to Kabul seeking urgent help. That the message was through a Facebook post is another proof of the desperate situation in Afghanistan, the blame for which must go to President Ashraf Ghani. “I know that bringing up this issue on social media will make you very angry,” deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar wrote in a Facebook post addressed to President Ghani. “But I cannot be silent any more... as Helmand stands on the brink... Ninety men have been killed in Gereshk and Sangin districts in the last two days.” , He said he was unsuccessful in making contact with the president through other means.
Helmand’s plight bears grim similarities to the situation in September when the northern city of Kunduz briefly fell to the Taliban -- the biggest Taliban victory in 14 years of war. The city was recaptured by the Afghan forces, but the Taliban advance had sent a powerful message – that the insurgents are capable of inflicting huge damage if they want. The fall of Helmand, if it happens, will deal another fatal blow to Afghan forces, and has the dangerous potential of upending the gains made by the Nato forces over the years.
Clashes between insurgents and government forces have intensified in most districts of Helmand, which is an opium-rich province. Rasoolyar pleaded for urgent assistance to save a province which British and US forces struggled for years to defend. Some reports said insurgents had already overrun the district, with government employees and several soldiers fleeing the area.
This month marks a year since the US-led Nato mission in Afghanistan tansformed into an Afghan-led operation, with allied nations assisting in training local forces. All this training should have helped the local forces defeat the Taliban, or at least halt their advance, but either the enemy is too formidable and has strengthened its war power or the Afghan forces are buckling under pressure from the enemy. It was a measure of the dire situation on the ground that US President Barack Obama in October announced that thousands of US troops would remain in Afghanistan past 2016, rescinding previous plans to curtail the forces and acknowledging that Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone.
Ashraf Ghani will have to do a serious rethink of his strategy if Afghanistan is to remain as it is today.
The Taliban are giving a tough fight to the Afghan government forces. After a string of gains across the country, the insurgents are now on the verge of capturing the southern province of Helmand. Ninety soldiers have been killed in fierce clashes, forcing the region’s deputy governor to send distress signals to Kabul seeking urgent help. That the message was through a Facebook post is another proof of the desperate situation in Afghanistan, the blame for which must go to President Ashraf Ghani. “I know that bringing up this issue on social media will make you very angry,” deputy governor Mohammad Jan Rasoolyar wrote in a Facebook post addressed to President Ghani. “But I cannot be silent any more... as Helmand stands on the brink... Ninety men have been killed in Gereshk and Sangin districts in the last two days.” , He said he was unsuccessful in making contact with the president through other means.
Helmand’s plight bears grim similarities to the situation in September when the northern city of Kunduz briefly fell to the Taliban -- the biggest Taliban victory in 14 years of war. The city was recaptured by the Afghan forces, but the Taliban advance had sent a powerful message – that the insurgents are capable of inflicting huge damage if they want. The fall of Helmand, if it happens, will deal another fatal blow to Afghan forces, and has the dangerous potential of upending the gains made by the Nato forces over the years.
Clashes between insurgents and government forces have intensified in most districts of Helmand, which is an opium-rich province. Rasoolyar pleaded for urgent assistance to save a province which British and US forces struggled for years to defend. Some reports said insurgents had already overrun the district, with government employees and several soldiers fleeing the area.
This month marks a year since the US-led Nato mission in Afghanistan tansformed into an Afghan-led operation, with allied nations assisting in training local forces. All this training should have helped the local forces defeat the Taliban, or at least halt their advance, but either the enemy is too formidable and has strengthened its war power or the Afghan forces are buckling under pressure from the enemy. It was a measure of the dire situation on the ground that US President Barack Obama in October announced that thousands of US troops would remain in Afghanistan past 2016, rescinding previous plans to curtail the forces and acknowledging that Afghan forces are not ready to stand alone.
Ashraf Ghani will have to do a serious rethink of his strategy if Afghanistan is to remain as it is today.
