Taliban terrorists take over TV station in strategic city as US airstrikes pound key positions in Afghanistan

The Taliban have taken over a TV station in Afghanistan’s strategic Helmand province, a source at the TV and radio station told CNN on Monday, marking the latest of a series of advances by the militant group in the country.

The Helmand TV station, located in the city of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province, is operated by state-run Radio and Television Afghanistan. Local journalists in Lashkar Gah say there is nothing currently being broadcast over the station.

In a text message to CNN, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said the group has taken over the station.

The incident comes as the United States has ramped up airstrikes against the Taliban in a bid to turn back the militants’ advances on a number of key provincial capitals in Afghanistan, a senior Afghan security official said Monday.

Over the past 72 hours, US airstrikes have targeted Taliban positions around the cities of Herat, Kandahar and Lashkar Gah, the official said.
“They strike multiple times when the Taliban try to enter the city,” the official said, adding that the three cities were considered “endangered” by Taliban advances.

American officials have recently confirmed that US airstrikes are active in Afghanistan again, which are now averaging between one and five strikes a day, a US defense official told CNN on Monday. The airstrikes are currently the only military assistance the US is rendering, the official also said.

While control on the ground is likely to shift back and forth still, as of Monday, Taliban forces were controlling some of the southern outskirts of Kandahar. Taliban forces that had initially surged toward Herat, near the Iran border, have for the moment been pushed back. But it is Lashkar Gah “that may be in the most jeopardy,” the official said, with at least two police districts believed to be in Taliban control.

The weekend saw heavy fighting between the Taliban and Afghan government forces in Lashkar Gah, where local journalists contacted by CNN also said the Taliban now control several districts of the city.

The defense official detailed a grim assessment of the situation on Monday, telling CNN: “It’s not going well.”

Lashkar Gah sits on strategic routes in all directions, including the highway between Kandahar and Herat and important agricultural areas to the south of the city. The Taliban has long had a strong presence in Helmand province, including around the provincial capital, but has not occupied any part of the capital since being overthrown in 2001.

The Afghan military reinforced its presence in the city on Saturday, bringing in special forces, according to a tweet from the 215 Corps, an army unit. It also carried out airstrikes against Taliban positions.

If Lashkar Gah were to fall to the Taliban it would be the first of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals to be lost by the government. But several others are surrounded by the Taliban, which also controls several major highways across Afghanistan.

The province of Herat has also seen heavy fighting. The Ministry of Defense tweeted Sunday: “Hundreds of special forces arrived in Herat province! These forces will increase offensive operations and suppress the Taliban in Herat. The security situation in the province will improve soon.”

In an apparent acknowledgment of the seriousness of the situation in Herat, the Ministry of the Interior said that the deputy interior minister General Abdul Rahman Rahman had arrived there with police special forces.

Videos that appeared Saturday indicate that the Taliban now control the road linking the capital — also called Herat — with its airport. A local journalist told CNN Sunday that the Taliban has control of much of Goazara district near the airport, and has also taken Karoakh to the east.

The airport itself remains in government hands.

“It’s not a foregone conclusion” the Taliban will take control of the provincial capitals, the defense official said. The concern, however, is deep in US military circles. Those cities “are under a lot of pressure. If one falls the potential for unraveling of Afghan confidence in the government becomes a real possibility,” the official said.

Source: CNN