MAIMANA - Afghan forces have broken the siege of Almar district in northeastern Faryab province, but tactically retreated to avoid casualties, local officials said on Tuesday.
Provincial police chief Col. Mir Amanullah Zafer said three security check points had to be relocated in Almar district after hundreds of Taliban rebels launched attacks in many areas.
But airstrikes by the Afghan Air Forces inflicted heavy casualties to the enemy in Qara Ghweli and Chaghatak areas, he said.
A provincial council member and a resident of Almar district, Abdul Manan Qatay, said that Jalgaldi and Qara Ghaweli areas had been lost to the Taliban who were closing in on the Almar center.
One security forces commander, Gul Ahmad, was killed and four others injured in Qara Ghaweli clash, he said. Manan said Taliban suffered heavy casualties in retaliatory attacks.
He added an Uzbek and an Arab rebel were also those killed in the clashes. However, hundreds of insurgents continued to attack Afghan forces in Chaghatak, Sarband and other areas of Almar.
A security official, who wished to go unnamed, said the Taliban had deployed three tanks, several mortars and other artillery weapons to highlands in western Almar district, firing at the security forces.
Almar district chief Mohammad Saleh Saleh said more than 1,800 families had been displaced in Qara Ghaweli area in the past 24 hours.
The families, fleeing to Almar center, lacked food, water and warm clothes and were dire need of emergency aid, the district chief said.
He said local government was unable to help the displaced families and the central governmental and charity organizations were silent to do something.
He warned the government of a possible humanitarian disaster if no assistance was delivered to the displaced families.
Several women and children lived in terrible conditions due to severe cold weather in a yard in the center of Almar district.
Faryab Governor Sayed Anwar Sadat said a delegation of the Emergency Response Committee had been sent to Almar district. The delegation also carried food items for the displaced families.
Sadat added the delegation transferred bread, milk packs, water and clothes to Almar district.  They would report accurate figures of the displaced families in order to be assisted. (Pajhwok)