Afghan Officials Confirm Troops Surrender Faryab Base to Taliban

Surrender announced after no reinforcements were sent

Jason Ditz 

Posted onAugust 13, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsAfghanistan

Provincial officials in the Faryab Province announced on Monday that after a 48 hour siege, the Afghan Army base in Ghormach District has been surrendered outright to the Taliban. Over 40 surviving forces were taken prisoner in the surrender.

The Faryab base is relatively remote, and security forces were warning Sunday that they were running out of ammunition and badly in need of reinforcements. The reinforcements never came, and they apparently had no choice but to give up.

Afghan military officials have yet to comment on the loss, but indications are that reinforcements were dispatched to the city of Ghazni, one of several Taliban offensives happening concurrently. Faryab apparently was a lower priority, as it wasn’t along a key highway.

Yet this is just the latest in a series of Afghan military bases overrun by the Taliban, and with that comes not only prisoners, but seized weapons as well. It’s not clear how many weapons were stored at this base, though since defenders were complaining about lack of ammunition, they may not be immediately useful for Taliban in the area.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/08/13/afghan-officials-confirm-troops-surrender-faryab-base-to-taliban/