AFGHANISTAN’S HELMAND PROVINCE MAY FALL
Afghanistan’s southern province of Helmand is on the verge of falling to the Taliban, with 90 soldiers killed in fierce clashes, its deputy governor said Sunday, imploring Kabul for intervention in an unusual Facebook post.
The warning bore grim similarities to the security situation that led to the brief fall of the northern city of Kunduz in September -- the biggest Taliban victory in 14 years of war.
Clashes between insurgents and government forces have intensified in several key districts of Helmand, fuelling concern that the opium-rich province is on the brink of a security collapse.
“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 Ashraf 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.” Rasoolyar pleaded for urgent assistance to save the province that British and US forces struggled for years to defend, saying he had been unsuccessful in making contact with the president through other means.
The fall of Helmand would deal another stinging blow to the country’s Nato-backed forces as they struggle to rein in the ascendant insurgency.
Rasoolyar alleged that government officials around Ghani are downplaying the gravity of the situation in the province.
-KABUL AFP DEC 20, 2015