Taliban fighters appeared to be on the brink of overrunning the key Afghan provincial capital of Lashkar Gah, as officials confirmed all but one district of the city was under the hardline Islamists' control and residents were ordered to leave.
Helmand provincial council deputy chairman Majid Akhund said the Taliban had taken control of nine Lashkar Gah districts as the Afghan government and US aircraft pounded their positions with strikes.
Gen Sami Sadat, an Afghan commander leading the military efforts in Helmand, told residents to flee. "Please leave as soon as possible so that we can start our operation," he said in a message to the city of 200,000 people.
“I know it is very difficult for you to leave your houses – it is hard for us too – but if you are displaced for a few days, please forgive us. We are fighting the Taliban wherever they are...We will not leave a single Taliban alive.”
The Taliban advances came as Afghan president Ashraf Ghani blamed the hasty withdrawal of US and Nato troops for the deteriorating security situation across the country.
The heaviest fighting in Lashkar Gah was reported around the main government compound, the prison – where an attempt to free prisoners was repulsed – and headquarters of the police and intelligence agency, with one official suggesting hundreds of soldiers had surrendered.
At least 40 civilians were reported killed and more than 100 wounded in the last 24 hours in the city.
Fortifications
Lashkar Gah is one of three provincial capitals under siege by the Taliban as they stepped up their onslaught against government forces.
Fida Mohammad, a tribal elder, described the situation as appalling. “The Taliban are climbing all the high-rise buildings in the centre of the city and setting up fortifications, then being bombed by the government,” he said.
A resident of Lashkar Gah told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity: “The Taliban are everywhere in the city, you can see them on motorcycles in the streets. They are arresting or shooting people who have smartphones.
“The Taliban are in the people’s houses and the government is bombing them. About 20 houses in my neighbourhood have been bombed, they are fighting street-to-street battles.”
The loss of Lashkar Gah would be a massive strategic and psychological blow for the government, which has pledged to defend cities at all costs after losing much of the rural countryside to the Taliban over the summer.
The continued contest for Helmand's main city, for years a focus of US and British military operations, came as government forces appeared to have pushed the Taliban out of several areas in the economically important western city of Herat following the recent arrival of hundreds of commando reinforcements.
While the Taliban's countrywide offensive has targeted three provincial capitals, including Kandahar and Herat, the attempt to take Lashkar Gah has emerged for now as the key battle in the group's ambitions to take and hold a provincial capital in the hope it will topple the surrounding provinces.
Air strikes
In recent days the US military has intensified air strikes across the country in an attempt to stem Taliban progress, not least in Lashkar Gah, after a week of rapid advances.
The Taliban has seized control of much of rural Afghanistan since foreign forces began the last stage of their withdrawal in early May, but are meeting resistance as they try to take provincial capitals.
The continuing violence in Helmand came as the United Nations warned that "indiscriminate" gunfire and airstrikes were hurting civilians the most.
Late on Tuesday a massive blast rocked the Afghan capital Kabul as the residence of the defence minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, was targeted by a car bomb. The minister was not present and his family was safely evacuated, according to officials.
Fighting also continued elsewhere in Afghanistan, including around Kandahar and in the western city of Herat, where there were clashes close to the city centre on Tuesday. – Guardian