Taliban Commander Who Led Attack on Afghan City Was Released From Prison Last Year, Officials Say

KABUL—The Taliban commander overseeing an assault on the essential southern metropolis of Lashkargah is just one of 5,000 previous prisoners launched by the Afghan authorities past yr beneath strain from the U.S., Afghan and Western officials say.

The commander, Mawlavi Talib, is just one of countless numbers of previous prisoners freed to further peace talks who have returned to the battlefield to be a part of the Taliban onslaught in opposition to metropolitan areas around the nation, Afghan officials say. The existence of the Taliban fighters is a fresh strain in relations involving Washington and Kabul, as the U.S.-backed authorities struggles to fend off Taliban attacks all through the nation.

Afghan officials mentioned intense preventing ongoing Tuesday in Lashkargah, the provincial funds of Helmand province, soon after major U.S. airstrikes and a counterattack by U.S.-qualified Afghan commandos right away. Beneath Mr. Talib’s command, hundreds of Taliban have pushed toward the metropolis centre above the past week. On Tuesday they introduced an assault on Lashkargah’s jail in a bid to launch more inmates and recruit them into the combat.

The preventing in Lashkargah is portion of a wider countrywide Taliban offensive that had captured fifty percent of the country’s distant districts by past thirty day period and now threatens provincial capitals. On Tuesday, the authorities mentioned that its commandos introduced a counterattack in the western metropolis of Herat, whose defenses were teetering. Taliban forces past thirty day period pierced defenses in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s 2nd major metropolis, but authorities forces are keeping regular there.

Afghanistan’s Protection Ministry mentioned Tuesday its forces killed around 375 Taliban and wounded 193 in preventing across the nation in the past 24 hours. Eleven improvised explosive units were discovered and defused, the ministry mentioned. The Afghan authorities has stopped releasing figures on its own military services casualties to keep away from demoralizing its troops.