Nearly 200 Afghan Forces Rescued From Taliban Siege

Nearly 200 Afghan security forces under siege by the Taliban for days have finally been rescued with the air support in Herat province that borders Iran, officials said.

Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for the Herat governor, said all besieged security forces from the restive Oba district have been rescued and taken to a health center.

For days, friends and relatives of these forces held a series of demonstrations in front of the governor's office, demanding their safe return amid mounting Taliban assaults cutting off supplies.

According to Zia-ul-Haq Nouri, the district chief, at least 49 security personnel out of 120 were wounded in the Taliban attacks.

He told Anadolu Agency that a number of these wounded soldiers were in critical condition due to lack of medicine and treatment.

The Taliban, on the contrary, claimed to have overrun the district.

According to the local Killid Radio, out of 387 districts and 34 provincial capitals, the centers of at least 30 districts have fallen to the Taliban over the last two months.

Meanwhile, the Afghan Defense Ministry claimed to have inflicted heavy death toll on the insurgents.

In a statement, the ministry said 258 Taliban were killed in the ongoing clean-up operations in 13 provinces of the country, while 76 landmines planted by the insurgents were defused in the past 24 hours.

Since the announcement of an exit date of September 2021 for American troops by US President Joe Biden, Afghanistan has been witnessing a spike in deadly Taliban assaults across the country that has led to mounting casualties on all sides. -