KABUL, Afghanistan -- Local Afghan officials say more than 200 police officers and soldiers have been killed during a fierce Taliban offensive in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan that has lasted all summer and now threatens to overwhelm a key district.
Officials at the national level have played down the violence and even, in some cases, flatly denied that there is a problem. But local military, police and government officials, including two Afghan generals, have said in recent days that they are unsure their forces can continue to hold out against the offensive, which has been underway since June in the Sangin district in northern Helmand and more recently in neighboring Musa Qala, unless they get more support from national authorities and international forces.
The authorities are particularly worried about Musa Qala, a traditional Taliban stronghold and a source of revenue from the lucrative opium poppy trade.
"The situation is deteriorating, and the Taliban are almost in the bazaar," the governor of Musa Qala district, Haji-Mohammad Sharif, said Friday when reached by telephone in the government center in Musa Qala. "If the situation remains the same, the district will soon fall to the hands of the Taliban."
The fighting has been particularly heavy in Musa Qala during the past 10 days, while a simultaneous Taliban ground assault has been underway in Sangin. That was a renewal of an offensive the insurgents began in Sangin in June, with both sides committing large numbers of ground forces to the fight.
The Afghan army began a counteroffensive in Sangin in July and August that pushed the insurgents away from the district capital, but in late August the Taliban renewed their attack. An Afghan army general familiar with the situation in Sangin, speaking on the condition of anonymity because, he said, higher authorities did not want the seriousness of the situation publicized, said that the insurgents had launched 788 attacks in the past three months in Sangin and in two neighboring districts, Now Zad and Kajaki.
In all, the general said, 71 Afghan army soldiers have been killed and 214 wounded since June, while 159 police officers have been killed and 219 wounded in the Sangin district.
In the Musa Qala district, according to the governor there, 50 police officers were killed or wounded, which is in addition to those killed in the Sangin fight. Both Musa Qala and Sangin have been heavily contested throughout the war because they are in green areas particularly suited to opium cultivation.
The last of the U.S. Marines left the area in May, with their commanders declaring Sangin and Musa Qala largely pacified. But the Taliban began attacks in Musa Qala soon afterward, and a full-scale offensive in Sangin the next month.
The violence in Helmand underscores the continued political standstill in Afghanistan, as former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and former Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai await results from a months-long presidential election audit.
On Saturday, a spokesman for Abdullah warned ahead of a meeting aimed at resolving the election dispute that "radicals" backing Abdullah could foment postelection violence if he isn't given an equitable share of power.
The camps of the two candidates said the two were expected to meet late Saturday or today to negotiate a final deal on what powers should be given to a proposed chief executive position, the final sticking point of a national unity government.
Mujib Rahman Rahimi, the spokesman for Abdullah -- the man most believe is behind in the official ballot count -- insinuated that the election could still end violently. The spokesman said Abdullah's powerful factional supporters are pressuring their candidate not to cede any power to Ahmadzai.
"If we agree and the terms of the agreement are providing an equal opportunity for both camps and defuses that tension, it might reduce the prospect of violence," Rahimi said.
"But imagine if you have an agreement that insults one side and promotes the other side and each side firmly believes he is a winner -- that could be a recipe for radicals to re-emerge and challenge the leadership and say this is not acceptable," he said.
Abdullah won the election's first round in April but did not secure enough votes to avoid a June runoff. A preliminary count showed Ahmadzai winning the second round, but both sides alleged widespread fraud. Abdullah's camp says it believes some 2.5 million votes out of 8 million cast were fake.
Information for this article was contributed by Rod Nordland and Taimoor Shah of The New York Times and by Jason Straziuso and Rahim Faiez of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/07/2014