Courtesy of Mish.
A resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan highlights another miserable failure of the Obama administration as well as another broken promise.
Taliban Poised to Retake Sangin
The Financial Times reports Taliban Poised to Retake Sangin from Afghan Army.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rebels appear poised to retake the strategically vital town of Sangin raising fears the Islamist militants could control the important poppy-growing areas of Helmand province.
Members of Afghanistan’s poorly trained armed forces on Tuesday were reportedly struggling to hold on in the face of a determined rebel push that saw them seize the town’s police headquarters.
Security analysts said Taliban forces were determined to regain control of Helmand, a region with which many Taliban leaders have close ties, and where they enjoy considerable popular support.
“Helmand is a base area for many of the Taliban leaders,” said Ahmed Rashid, the author of several books on Afghanistan, Pakistan and central Asia. “It is dear and important to them.”
He also said the Taliban was likely to try to declare an alternative governing council once they gained full control over Helmand, which would be a further blow to the Afghan government in Kabul.
The central government in Kabul is facing instability across the region, with a Taliban suicide bombing near Bagram in the east of the country killing six US soldiers on Monday in one of the deadliest attacks on foreign forces in Afghanistan this year.
Although Nato’s combat role in Afghanistan ended in 2014, the battle for Sangin highlights how stretched the Afghan security forces have become in holding back the Taliban advance.
Defence analysts say they are badly stretched trying to hold back the Taliban advance on multiple fronts, with fears the militants will capture further swathes of territory.
At the height of the international military intervention in Afghanistan, tens of thousands of educated Afghans were employed in service jobs, supporting the international forces, but most of these jobs disappeared with the drawdown of foreign troops, with nothing to take their place.
…
