The Taliban moved ahead with their advances in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, capturing 9 out of ten districts of the Helmand provincial capital, residents and officials said. Afghan security forces carried out airstrikes, backed by the US, in an effort to defend the city of Lashkar Gah.
Residents of Lashkar Gah while speaking to The Associate Press said that the fighting has trapped them and hunkered down inside their houses, unable to step out for basic supplies. They said that Taliban fighters were out openly in streets and that all but one Lashkar Gah district was under Taliban control.
Elite commando teams were dispatched from Kabul to support Afghan security forces as the government held on important government buildings, including local police and army headquarters.
The Afghan forces’ commander for Helmand, General Sami Sadat, in an audio message shared with journalists on Tuesday urged the residents in neighbourhoods seized by the Taliban to evacuate immediately, though he did not clarify how they could do that amid the ongoing clashes.
