Afghan Forces Abandon Western District After Taliban Attacks

Govt unable to supply troops under Taliban siege

Jason Ditz 

Posted onDecember 12, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsAfghanistan

Continued Taliban attacks in the Farah Province of western Afghanistan have forced the military to abandon the Shebkoh District, along the border with Iran, after the government failed in an attempt to deliver supplies to them.

The inability to get supplies or reinforcements into an area that’s been under siege for months made it a fairly simple decision. Provincial officials downplayed the pullout, saying they’d been planning to do so for months.

This has become a recurring problem across Afghanistan, as the Taliban are attacking many more places than the government is able to defend, and that’s left many areas with little to no defense, losing more and more ground.

Abandoning such districts is in keeping with US calls to the Afghan government, which are to stop trying to defend so much of the country and focus on attacking. Given how little progress offensive has made, however, it’s not clear how long they can afford to just lose ground this way.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/12/12/afghan-forces-abandon-western-district-after-taliban-attacks/