(Reuters) - Taliban militants have launched an offensive against Afghan forces at Camp Bastion, the huge base in southern Helmand province vacated by the British military a month ago, officials said.
"Taliban attacked under the cover of darkness during the night, but our security forces fought against them well and prevented any damage to the camp," General Ghulam Farooq Parwani, deputy commander of Maiwand 215 military corps said on Friday.
Camp Bastion was handed over to the Afghan military as part of the coalition's withdrawal of most foreign troops by the end of 2014.
General Parwani said five of his men had been killed, along with 20 Taliban fighters, and the battle was continuing. The figures could not be verified.
http://http://uk.reuters.com/article...0JC23K20141128
I remember discussing the likely trajectory of Afghanistan with a historian / operational analyst in my last post, and at the time the rather flippant comment doing the rounds went along the lines of 'I don't know whether to give them 6 days, 6 weeks or 6 months before the Taliban take over'. Is this a portent of things to come I wonder? We're back in Iraq after only a few years away, what are the odds of us being back in Afghanistan in the same sort of time frame I wonder?
Just once I'd like to be not cynical about something, but the way in which this achieved almost no press coverage seems a bit odd. Or would it just be too much too close to an election for someone to stick their head above the parapet and give an honest reflection of the last 13 years in Afghanistan?
Maybe the Taliban were right after all - we had all the watches, they have all the time.