LASHKAR GAH – 180 soldiers and police were killed and hundreds wounded,according to a senior Afghan security official, who spoke on condition ofanonymity. He said weekly death tolls for security forces in the provincecould reach as high as 250.
Last week, the Afghan air force dropped its first laser-guided missile on aTaliban compound in Farah, the western Afghan province that has seenincreasing fighting since the beginning of the year.
The strike was an important milestone for the air force that underlined thegrowing importance of Farah, where hundreds of Taliban fighters haveappeared since US-backed Afghan forces stepped up operations inneighbouring Helmand province.
Over the past month, Taliban fighters have delivered a series of blows togovernment forces, helped, according to officials in the area, byneighbouring Iran, which shares a long, porous border with the province.
The provincial governor stepped down in January blaming politicalinterference and civilians say the situation has become worse.
“We don’t know the reason for the escalation of violence but I can saypeople are very scared and people in the city haven’t slept in peace formonths because of the fighting,” said Abdullah, a shopkeeper in Farah citywho said he now struggles to pay the rent on his shop.
“There are many people in the same situation. Thousands of young people arejobless, they either join the Taliban or cross the border to Iran to find aliving.”
The problem underlines broader challenges facing the Kabul government andits US allies, which last year announced a strategy to force the Taliban tothe negotiating table through a mix of air strikes and stepped-upassistance to Afghan forces.
This month, Afghan forces, backed by US air power and close assistance fromUS advisers, began a fresh operation dubbed Maiwand 12, to hit the Talibanin the insurgency hotspots of Marjah and Nad Ali districts of Helmandprovince.
As operations have increased in Helmand, Western officials acknowledge thatthe pressure has pushed militants to Farah.
But they say the insurgent focus on areas far from former battlegroundswhere they had threatened the government show the problems they are facing.
“Taliban offensives in these remote areas represent a significant loweringof ambition after their failure to take any provincial capitals in 2017,”US Navy Captain Tom Gresback, spokesman for the NATO-led Resolute Supportcoalition, said in an emailed statement.
US aircraft recently began bombing “drug factories” in opium-rich Helmand,but local leaders and officials in Kabul say the Taliban will fight hard toavoid losing control of smuggling routes, which bring in millions ofdollars for the insurgency.
“There are hundreds of fighters who move back and forth between Farah andHelmand,” the Afghan security official said.
“There is a route for smuggling opium and heroin from Helmand to Farah andfinally Iran and the Taliban and the smugglers will always fight toprotect. It is tens of millions of dollars.”
The US ambassador to Afghanistan, Robert Bass, told the BBC this month thatIran was providing logistical support to the Taliban, an accusationrejected by Tehran.
Iran has always denied interfering in Afghanistan but Afghan officials sayit has multiple interests as well as its general hostility to the UnitedStates.
They say it fears dams in Farah could slow the flow of water into Iran andhas suspicions about a planned Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India(TAPI) gas pipeline.
“There is only one reason behind this: Iran’s interference which providesthe insurgents weapons and tries to hamper the TAPI project,” saidprovincial council member Dadullah Qaneh. – Agencies