LASHKAR GAH - The Taliban seized a district headquarters in Afghanistan's Helmand province on Monday despite US airstrikes to repel them, and two NATO soldiers were shot dead by uniformed men on an army base in the area, a stronghold for militants and opium.
The district of Musa Qala fell after the Taliban over-ran police and army posts in an offensive that lasted several days. Three US airstrikes on Saturday killed up to 40 militants, but they regrouped and chased government officials out of town.
Elsewhere in Helmand, two men in military uniforms opened fire in the former British base of Camp Bastion, killing two NATO soldiers. In the first summer fighting season since foreign troops formally stepped back from combat roles in the Afghan war, the Taliban have pushed into a number of districts but have struggled to hold them when the Afghan army counter-attacks.
Musa Qala and neighbouring Nawzad, which recently fell to the Taliban, saw some of the most lethal battles between Taliban insurgents and British and US forces following toppling of the hardline Islamists' five-year rule in 2001.
Nearly 14 years later, the Taliban are still fighting a guerilla war aimed at returning to power. "We left the district early in the morning because the Taliban were attacking from all sides," district governor M Sharif told Reuters by telephone. "We had asked for reinforcements for days but none arrived and this was what happened," he said. Strong through much of Helmand province, which is the largest producer of Afghanistan's lucrative opium crop, the Taliban killed more than 400 British soldiers, who led the counterinsurgency there until pulling out last year.
Violence has increased sharply across Afghanistan since foreign forces mostly withdrew in December, leaving a small contingent of about 12,000 NATO troops to train Afghan forces. The US-led Resolute Support mission issued a statement confirming that two of its soldiers were killed in Helmand.
"Two Resolute Support service members died early this morning, when two individuals wearing Afghan National Defence and Security Forces uniforms opened fire on their vehicle," the alliance said in a statement. "Resolute Support service members returned fire and killed the shooters," it added, without revealing the nationalities of the foreign soldiers.
So-called "green-on-blue" attacks - when Afghan soldiers or police turn their guns on international troops - have been a major problem during NATO's long years fighting alongside Afghan forces. It was the first such incident since Mullah Akhtar Mansour was named the new Taliban chief following the announcement of the death of longtime leader Mulla Omar.
It was the second incident this year involving Afghan troops, or people wearing Afghan uniforms, shooting at foreign soldiers. No group has claimed the attack. The statement did not give further information on the exact location of the incident and nationalities of those killed, but most foreign forces operating in Helmand now are American.
A regional official said the incident involved two apparent Afghan special forces firing on their allies at the former Camp Bastion, a major base handed over to Afghan forces last year.
Western officials say most such incidents stem from personal grudges and cultural misunderstandings rather than insurgent plots. The killings have bred fierce mistrust between local and foreign forces even though their number has declined in recent years.
The last insider attack was in April, when an American soldier was killed in a firefight between US and Afghan troops in eastern Afghanistan. It was the first apparent "green-on-blue" attack since Washington announced a delay in US troop withdrawals from the country.
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter at the time said the US soldier's killing showed that work remains to shore up Afghan forces in the "dangerous" country.
One of the worst insider attacks took place last August when US Major General Harold Greene was killed - the most senior American military officer to die in action overseas since the Vietnam War. NATO troops have adopted special security measures in recent years to try to counter the threat.
The Afghan military, which has been built from scratch since the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, has also struggled with "insider attack" killings, high casualty rates and mass desertions.