Taliban Commander Who Led Attack on Afghan City Was Released From Prison Last Year, Officials Say

KABUL—The Taliban commander overseeing an assault on the important southern metropolis of Lashkargah is one of five,000 previous prisoners released by the Afghan governing administration last calendar year beneath force from the U.S., Afghan and Western officials say.

The commander, Mawlavi Talib, is one of countless numbers of previous prisoners freed to more peace talks who have returned to the battlefield to join the Taliban onslaught against metropolitan areas around the country, Afghan officials say. The presence of the Taliban fighters is a clean strain in relations amongst Washington and Kabul, as the U.S.-backed governing administration struggles to fend off Taliban attacks all through the country.

Afghan officials mentioned fierce battling ongoing Tuesday in Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand province, soon after hefty U.S. airstrikes and a counterattack by U.S.-qualified Afghan commandos right away. Beneath Mr. Talib’s command, hundreds of Taliban have pushed toward the metropolis centre over the past week. On Tuesday they released an attack on Lashkargah’s jail in a bid to launch much more inmates and recruit them into the struggle.

The battling in Lashkargah is section of a broader countrywide Taliban offensive that had captured fifty percent of the country’s distant districts by last month and now threatens provincial capitals. On Tuesday, the governing administration mentioned that its commandos released a counterattack in the western metropolis of Herat, whose defenses had been teetering. Taliban forces last month pierced defenses in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second most significant metropolis, but governing administration forces are keeping regular there.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry mentioned Tuesday its forces killed around 375 Taliban and wounded 193 in battling throughout the country in the last 24 hours. Eleven improvised explosive devices had been learned and defused, the ministry mentioned. The Afghan governing administration has stopped releasing figures on its individual military casualties to prevent demoralizing its troops.