Taliban Capture About 150 Afghan Soldiers After Chase Into Turkmenistan

[TomSea]

Taliban Capture About 150 Afghan Soldiers After Chase Into Turkmenistan


Afghan soldiers in Murghab District, Badghis Province, in 2017. The latest capture by the Taliban was perhaps the biggest setback for the Afghan security forces since a Taliban offensive in August.CreditCreditHoshang Hashimi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan — The Taliban carried out the biggest known capture of Afghan soldiers of the war, taking 150 prisoners after they chased units into neighboring Turkmenistan and that country forced them back, Afghan officials said on Sunday.

The operation took place in the northwestern Afghan province of Badghis, and brought to 190 the number of soldiers captured by insurgents in the hotly contested district of Murghab — with 16 more soldiers killed — in less than a week.

Last Monday, an entire Afghan Army company was killed or captured there. By Saturday, its defenders said the district had fallen mostly into Taliban control, though Afghan forces were still holding the district’s government center.

Read more at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/asia/afghanistan-soldiers-taliban-turkmenistan.html