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Afghan forces recapture district in Helmand province from Taliban

Taliban forces captured the district of Musa Qala from Afghan troops last Wednesday.

By Fred Lambert
Afghan soldiers train under the supervision of British troops at Ghar Ordoo military base, on May 26, 2010, in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghan military says it recaptured the Musa Qala district in Helmand province on Aug. 30, 2015, after Taliban fighters seized it on Wednesday. File photo by Hossein Fatemi/UPI
Afghan soldiers train under the supervision of British troops at Ghar Ordoo military base, on May 26, 2010, in Herat province, west of Kabul, Afghanistan. The Afghan military says it recaptured the Musa Qala district in Helmand province on Aug. 30, 2015, after Taliban fighters seized it on Wednesday. File photo by Hossein Fatemi/UPI | License Photo

MUSA QALA, Afghanistan, Aug. 30 (UPI) -- Afghan forces, backed by U.S. air power, recaptured the Helmand province district of Musa Qala after it was seized by Taliban forces last week.

"Following successful operations, the security forces inflicted huge casualties to the Taliban rebels in Musa Qala district and re-established government control there Sunday morning," Xinhua news agency quoted Afghanistan's defense ministry as saying in a statement.

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Xinhua quoted the defense ministry as reporting 120 militants killed and 80 wounded, while The Guardian reports the defense ministry tallying 220 dead Taliban fighters.

The Guardian quoted the Helmand province governor, Mirza Khan Rahimi, as saying 33 security personnel were killed or injured.

Taliban forces captured Musa Qala on Wednesday despite U.S. airstrikes killing up to 40 of the attacking militants, the BBC reports.

In late July, the militants likewise captured the district of Nawzad, also in Helmand province, but lost it in two days.

"In the past we have seen the Taliban take districts but they don't try to hold them," The Guardian quoted Razia Baloch, a provincial council member from Helmand, as saying, noting "they accomplished their mission" merely by threatening the district.

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Defense ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri echoed this logic, saying the "Taliban's aim is not to keep the districts" and that they "are just attacking for propaganda purposes."

Taliban spokesmen have been so far silent about the loss of Musa Qala but on Friday had characterized their recent seizure of the district as a "big victory."

U.S. forces over the past seven days have conducted 18 airstrikes in the Musa Qala area, according to U.S. officials, adding to 380 strikes conducted in Afghanistan between January and July.

After U.S. President Barack Obama announced plans for U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2011, coalition forces officially handed the security operation to Afghan forces in December 2014, leaving a contingent of 12,000 NATO troops behind to conduct training and support missions.

Since then, Taliban attacks on Afghan troops and police officers have been on the rise.

In June, the Taliban claimed to have killed dozens of police officers in raids against checkpoints in Musa Qala -- some manned by two to three police officers.

At the time, U.S. and Afghan officials estimated about 330 Afghan soldiers and police were being killed or wounded each week in Taliban attacks. The level of casualties among those forces in the first 15 weeks of 2015 was 70 percent higher than during the same period last year.

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The recapture of Musa Qala comes less than a week after two U.S. Air Force combat controllers, identified as Capt. Matthew D. Roland, 27, and Staff Sgt. Forrest B. Sibley, 31, were killed when their vehicle was attacked by a gunman wearing an Afghan military uniform.

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