Taliban fighters in the Helmand Province attacked a local marketplace in the contested Gereshk District, sparking some 12 hours of open conflict with security forces. At least 40 Taliban were reported killed, along with an undisclosed number of Afghan government fighters.
Taliban forces control a large chunk of the Helmand province, and are always looking to expand deeper into contested areas, where Afghan security forces are often low of manpower and supplies, and can at times be quickly routed before reinforcements arrive.
The Gereshk District has been the site of a lot of fighting in recent weeks, including an incident in late July where a US drone attacked what they thought were massing Taliban, but turned out to be Afghan police, killing 15 of them.
The Taliban’s territory gains are well beyond Helmand, of course, and they control more territory than at any time since 2001. Helmand, however, is a key priority because of its role in the lucrative opium trade.
What IS going on here in this forum and in Yemen.. There was a comment here when I arrived, now Its gone… Perhaps the commenter deleted it, but it was quite an inert comment so I would think that was unlikely…
To me it appears that there is less participation than one would hope for and expect HERE ….. and on the topic of war and peace in media at large too.
Comment count only goes back 11 months. August 2016, 900+ comments. July 2017, 1,900+ comments. That’s for the news section (each section has independent commenting). So basically twice as much commenting this year as last year, but the trend is more comments in fall and winter, downward trend starting in late spring and continuing through summer, August looking like the slowest month. Apparently some of our audience travels, or spends more time outside, during the summer months in the northern hemisphere.