When Taliban fighters penetrated the capital of Helmand province for the first time Monday, killing at least 14 people in a suicide bombing and related attacks, it was their most successful assault to date on the strategic southern city and opium trade center, which the insurgents have been trying to capture for months. – Washington Post
[T]he past decade of war against the Taliban has produced a new generation of disabled men, almost all still in their 20s. Many were injured during fighting in places such as Kunduz and Helmand provinces, which are in the news as targets of renewed Taliban offensives. And most are far more grievously wounded than the older veterans, because the explosive devices used by today’s insurgents are much more powerful. – Washington Post
The Afghan army, a force with inconsistent levels of competence and with nearly unsustainable casualty numbers, is increasingly relying on the commandos as stopgap cover in a campaign it — more often than not without external support — is losing. The reliance on the commandos risks both burning out the elite force and creating a sense of complacency within the regular army, according to U.S. advisers. – Washington Post’s Checkpoint
- Dwindling Afghan forces face a resurgent Taliban
In what appears to be one of the worst massacres of Afghan forces in a protracted and forgotten war, at least 100 were killed when the Taliban fighters opened fire on them from all directions as they tried to flee through the agreed-upon retreat route, Afghan officials said Wednesday. – New York Times
The Taliban pressed further into the capital of Helmand province on Wednesday, officials said, firing rockets at the governor’s compound as they threatened to overrun a second major Afghan city in just over a week. – Wall Street Journal (subscription required)
A second deadly attack on Shiite worshipers in two days killed at least 17 people and wounded 36 others when a remote-controlled bomb exploded outside a mosque in northern Afghanistan, as crowds in the capital and elsewhere gathered defiantly to commemorate one of Islam’s holiest days. – Washington Post
The Pentagon contracted with foreign companies that installed uncertified and possibly unsafe doors at the Ministry of Interior in Kabul, Afghanistan, raising concerns that the U.S. government was defrauded by firms working on the multi-million dollar construction project. – Washington Free Beacon
Afghan security forces cleared Kunduz of Taliban fighters Wednesday after more than a week of fighting in the northern city, which the insurgents had briefly captured and held last year, Afghan and U.S. officials said. – Stars and Stripes
For the past month, the Taliban have held control over most of Afghanistan's Helmand province, where the majority of the world's opium is grown — and as insurgent attacks intensify around the provincial capital, residents are blaming rampant government corruption for the rising militant threat. – Associated Press