Taliban storms Afghan district ‘leaving at least 100 dead’

Hundreds of Taliban fighters have stormed a strategic district in an Afghan province near the capital, killing dozens of people in five days of fighting.

The attack by an estimated 700 Taliban fighters began about five days ago and early reports were that more than 100 people had been killed, including 15 who were beheaded by the militants, said provincial deputy governor Ahmadullah Ahmadi.

Afghan officials said women and children are believed to be among the casualties. There are no Nato troops stationed in the district.

Beheadings are rare in Afghanistan, though they occasionally take place as part of the Taliban campaign to intimidate and exact revenge on the families of Afghan troops and security forces.

The Ghazni provincial government has lost contact with police in the province’s western district of Ajrestan, said Asadullah Safi, deputy police chief of the area. “If there is no urgent help from the central government, the district will collapse,” he said.

The battle for Ajrestan illustrates the grave challenges facing Afghanistan’s new president and the security forces in holding territory as foreign combat troops prepare to leave at the end of the year.

Ghazni is southwest of the capital. The main highway linking Kabul to southern Afghanistan, where the Taliban have been making advances in recent months, passes through the province.

No longer pinned down by US air cover, Taliban fighters are attacking Afghan military posts in large numbers with the aim of taking and holding ground. Heavy fighting was continuing in Ajrestan today.

Mr Safi said a suicide car bomber attacked a police checkpoint early in the day before provincial authorities completely lost contact with the district.

The militants have been focusing on regaining important opium-growing areas, such as the southern province of Helmand, and areas where they have traditionally enjoyed support, such as Kunduz province in the north.

Control of Ghazni’s mountainous Ajrestan district, about 200km (125 miles) from Kabul, could provide the Taliban with a launching point for attacks in two bordering provinces and along the crucial artery connecting the capital to Afghanistan’s second city of Kandahar in the south.

The growing Taliban threat is likely to be the most urgent challenge for the new, US-brokered government of national unity between President-elect Ashraf Ghani and his former rival Abdullah Abdullah.

Provincial authorities have appealed for help from the central government in Kabul, where Mr Ghani is in the process of taking over the presidency from Hamid Karzai.

Months of deadlock over a disputed election and uncertainty over whether any US troops will remain beyond this year has battered morale among Afghan security forces.

“Peace with the Taliban requires a strong government. At the moment the Taliban think they can fight in every province and they believe they can overthrow the government,” said Haji Mohammad Mohaqiq, Abdullah Abdullah’s running mate and the leader of Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazara minority. “Without international support it will be hard to provide security ... The example of Ajrestan district shows that without international commitment of troops, it will be difficult to handle the Taliban.”

Reuters