Bitter blow: UK’s former hub in Afghanistan taken by Taliban

By PAN PYLAS
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — Confirmation that the Taliban captured the capital of Afghanistan’s Helmand province has particular resonance in Britain. For much of the past 20 years, British troops tried to keep the province from falling into into the hands of the Taliban. The vast majority of the U.K.’s 457 casualties occurred in Helmand as British troops fought with allied NATO forces. With the Taliban now in control of around two-thirds of Afghanistan, questions are being raised about why the U.K. couldn’t have remained after the departure of U.S. troops. A former British defense minister and Afghanistan veteran told the BBC he finds it “extremely humiliating” that people will die in Afghanistan because of a lack of political will.