100 casualties in Helmand in 2 weeks

LASHKARGAH (Pajhwok): As many as 33 Taliban insurgents have been killed, 27 injured and 15 others captured alive during separate incidents over the past two weeks in southern Helmand province, police said on Sunday.

Deputy provincial police chief Col. Mohammad Wais Samimi told reporters in Lashkargah, the provincial capital, that civilian casualties had declined in the province since the last month of the solar year.

He said insurgents had been planning a number of attacks, but police thwarted them as a result of complete preparedness. During the past two weeks, Samimi said, 160 kilograms of narcotics, 15kg of heroin, two cars and seven motorcycles were seized.

A large quantity of arms was confiscated and 129 roadside bombs defused during the period, he added. The deputy police chief linked decline in casualties among civilians and security forces to increased and tight security arrangements.

He said police lost 10 personnel during the past two weeks, when two civilians were killed and 14 others wounded. Samimi also said they were planning to launch a massive operation in northern districts to establish security posts there.

However, residents of Sangin and Kajaki districts said ongoing fierce clashes in the two towns had resulted in closure of all roads and destruction of their farm fields.

Member of the social council in Sangin, Ali Shah Khan, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the government had failed to end the years-long conflict that had left thousands displaced and hundreds killed and wounded.

He said coordinated security operations should be conducted in the district with support from local residents, who should be provided basic facilities of life.

A resident of Omal area of Sangin, Haji Nasim, said some government officials and tribal elders benefited from the conflict in Sangin. However, he did not elaborate.

A resident of the Kajaki district, Ghulam Mohammad, said people had not been assisted over the past 13 years and as a result, dwellers of many areas were against the government.

Deputy Governor Ahmad Massoud Bakhtawar acknowledged problems existed in northern districts and that the government had failed to properly serve residents.

He told Pajhwok Afghan News they were trying to launch a coordinated operation in Sangin and other northern districts in the near future to bring the situation under control.

ma/mud

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