KABUL, Afghanistan -- Taliban insurgents killed three prominent local government officials and at least nine other people in three separate attacks in southern Afghanistan on Saturday.
The attacks came as the insurgents continued to hold the strategic district of Musa Qala in Helmand province, which fell to them Wednesday in the face of what witnesses described as an intense bombardment by U.S. warplanes.
In Ghazni province, Taliban insurgents attacked a remote checkpoint of the Afghan Local Police in the Andar district at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, killing six police officers, including the commander, a prominent leader known only as Abdullah, according to a member of the provincial council, Amanullah Kamrani.
In Oruzgan province, on the highway between the provincial capital of Tarinkot and the city of Kandahar, the Taliban on Saturday morning ambushed a government convoy escorting the provincial security chief, Rahimullah Khan, and the head of the Shura Council, Maulvi Lal Mohammad. Mohammad was killed, along with a tribal elder and their driver, but Khan escaped, said Dust Mohammad Nayaab, the spokesman for the provincial government.
In the Chora District of Oruzgan, a bomb was set off that killed the deputy district police chief, Amir Mohammad, and two bodyguards, Nayaab said.
The tempo of Taliban attacks in the south, and on so many different fronts, was worrisome. The insurgents have continued to press government forces on new fronts opened in northern Afghanistan in recent months. In the past four days, at least 50 government soldiers, police officers, militiamen and officials were killed throughout the country.
The attacks in the south have drawn U.S. forces deeper into the conflict than at any point since their combat role officially ended Dec. 31. As the Musa Qala district fell Wednesday, members of a U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Squadron were rushed into Camp Bastion, recently renamed Camp Antonik, the military headquarters of Helmand province.
U.S. military officials said the soldiers deployed there -- believed to number 90 Special Operations troops -- were part of the NATO and U.S.-led coalition's noncombat, "train, advise and assist" mission. On their first night, however, as they were returning from a late-night operation to the base, now run by Afghans, they were challenged by Afghan guards. Two of them were killed in the ensuing firefight. The nature of the late-night operation was unclear.
Afghan officials said it was a case of mistaken identity. Afghan forces have been nervous after attacks by insurgents dressed in the uniforms of the Afghan military, police or even the U.S. military.
The Pentagon identified the two dead Americans as Capt. Matthew Roland, 27, of Lexington, Ky., and Staff Sgt. Forrest Sibley, 31, of Pensacola, Fla., both members of the Air Force's Special Tactics squadrons. Such squadrons contain Special Operations troops, commonly employed on close air-support missions, where ground controllers help direct airstrikes.
Their deaths raise to five the number of U.S. soldiers killed in the Afghan conflict this year. At least six U.S. contractors have been killed, as well.
Although the train, advise and assist mission is supposed to preclude combat operations, it does allow for U.S. troops to conduct counterterrorism missions, such as against al-Qaida, and to provide force protection in emergencies. The insurgents in Musa Qala are entirely Taliban forces.
"The coalition is now providing air support, and both Afghan and coalition forces are carrying out aerial bombardment and targeting Musa Qala district, and soon we will conduct ground operations to clear up the area," said Mohammad Rasoul Zazai, the spokesman for the Afghan National Army's 215th Corps in Helmand.
He said that 50 Taliban fighters had been killed in the bombardment so far, but he added that the most intense strikes were yet to come.
"It is important to note whenever the U.S. conducts airstrikes, a U.S. [soldier] must be on the ground directing the strike to ensure they are conducted within our rules of engagement," said Col. Brian Tribus, a U.S. military spokesman.
Afghan security officials and residents of Musa Qala described several days of intense bombing of Taliban positions in the district, a strategic crossroads that was long held at great cost by U.S. Marines and British Royal Marines. The bombing, which continued through Saturday, had so far not dislodged the insurgents from the district government center.
Information for this article was contributed by Taimoor Shah, Fazal Muzhary and Mujib Mashal of The New York Times.
A Section on 08/30/2015