MOSCOW (Sputnik) – About 100 troops were sent to the Afghan city of Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern Helmand province to prevent it from being seized by the Taliban terrorist movement, US Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, spokesman of coalition forces in Afghanistan, said on Monday.
Since July, the Taliban Islamists have seized territories across the Helmand province threatening its capital.
Cleveland said that the US reinforcement is a "temporary effort" to advise the Afghan police, The Guardian reported.
"They’re not about to go out and conduct operations or something like that," Cleveland said.
He gave details neither about the exact number of the deployed troops nor about how long the troops’ presence in Lashkar Gah would last.
Afghanistan is in a state of political and social turmoil, fighting the continuing Taliban insurgency, with other extremist groups, such as the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh, outlawed in Russia), expanding their activities in the country as well.
