Taliban fighters seize Afghan territory as NATO chief visits Kabul

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Afghan soldiers stand guard Tuesday following weeks of heavy clashes to recapture territory from Taliban militants in Baghlan province, north of Kabul

KABUL — As NATO’s secretary general was meeting with Afghan leaders here Tuesday, Taliban fighters were seizing further territory in southern Afghanistan during a bloody fight with Afghan troops.

The NATO chief, Jens Stoltenberg, praised Afghan security forces during a news conference with President Ashraf Ghani, but the loss in Helmand province was a blow to the government’s troubled efforts against the insurgency.

The Khanashin district in Helmand fell to the Taliban after insurgents had “amassed” in the area “for days,” a local official said. Police and army personnel abandoned their posts outside government buildings after hours of fighting, another security official in Helmand said. Neither official was authorized to speak to the media. Both sides suffered casualties, the officials said.

Police and army spokesmen told Afghan media late Tuesday that the withdrawal from Khanashin had been a “tactical retreat” but that they were still battling with insurgents and the Taliban did not yet control the area.

till, the Taliban’s apparent gains in the district — a windswept patch of desert about 100 miles from Helmand’s provincial capital, Lashkar Gah — comes just weeks after government forces withdrew from two other districts in the province, effectively ceding control to insurgents.

Late last month, Afghan army and police personnel pulled out of Helmand’s Musa Qala and Now Zad districts following months of deadly battles with the Taliban. The two areas had alternated between government and Taliban control over the past year, and Afghan security forces suffered from heavy casualties, desertions and low morale, local officials said.

The pullout has raised concerns about the security forces’ ability to hold on to key territory, particularly ahead of the traditional fighting season that takes place in the warmer months. The Taliban-led insurgency has expanded since foreign troops left the country in 2014 and as Afghans have become increasingly fed up with a government seen as weak and corrupt. The fighting has contributed to the highest number of civilian deaths since the United Nations began tracking casualties in 2009.