Taliban Commander Who Led Attack on Afghan City Was Released From Prison Last Year, Officials Say

Afghan officials said fierce fighting continued Tuesday in Lashkargah, the provincial capital of Helmand province, after heavy U.S. airstrikes and a counterattack by U.S.-trained Afghan commandos overnight. Under Mr. Talib’s command, hundreds of Taliban have pushed toward the city center over the past week. On Tuesday they launched an attack on Lashkargah’s prison in a bid to release more inmates and recruit them into the fight.

The fighting in Lashkargah is part of a wider countrywide Taliban offensive that had captured half of the country’s remote districts by last month and now threatens provincial capitals. On Tuesday, the government said that its commandos launched a counterattack in the western city of Herat, whose defenses were teetering. Taliban forces last month pierced defenses in Kandahar, Afghanistan’s second largest city, but government forces are holding steady there.

Afghanistan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday its forces killed around 375 Taliban and wounded 193 in fighting across the country in the last 24 hours. Eleven improvised explosive devices were discovered and defused, the ministry said. The Afghan government has stopped releasing statistics on its own military casualties to avoid demoralizing its troops.

In Kabul, attackers set off a car bomb near a guest house of Afghanistan’s acting defense minister Tuesday night, then stormed a nearby residence. The attack set off a gun battle with responding security forces that lasted hours.

The minister, Bismillah Khan, wasn’t home at the time of the attack. Hamid Noori, a spokesman for the ministry of interior, said dozens of civilians were evacuated from the area. A nearby hospital reported at least four people were killed and 11 admitted with wounds.

Before a special session of parliament called in response to the Taliban offensive, Afghan President

Ashraf Ghani

assured the country Monday that the U.S. still supports the government. But he offered a rare public criticism of the U.S., saying, “the current situation is due to a sudden decision on the withdrawal of international troops.”

On Tuesday, Secretary of State

Antony Blinken

spoke with Mr. Ghani to “reiterate the strong and enduring U.S. commitment to Afghanistan,” the State Department said. The leaders both condemned the Taliban attacks, which they said “show little regard for human life and human rights.”

Afghan forces’ dependence on U.S. air power for airstrikes and logistics rendered them ill-prepared for the U.S. pullout. Afghan officials say privately that their ground and air forces have been stretched thin in the fighting. The Afghan Air Force, which the U.S. has called the government’s most potent weapon against the Taliban, has been unable to fill the vacuum.

The U.S. pullout from Afghanistan follows an agreement signed with the Taliban last year under which the Taliban promised not to allow al Qaeda or other international jihadist groups to use Afghan soil to attack other countries.

The U.S. agreed to the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners as part of that agreement, in an effort to encourage the Taliban to talk to the Afghan government and agree to a cease-fire. However, Kabul was reluctant to free the prisoners and, Afghan officials say, only did so under pressure from Washington. Talks between the Taliban and Afghan government started but never gained momentum and instead of a cease-fire, the insurgents have unleashed a countrywide offensive.

“The decision to release prisoners was a difficult decision for the Afghans to make,” said a State Department spokesperson. “Prisoner releases are often a challenging but necessary step in ending armed conflict.”

Before their release, prisoners signed promises not to engage in fighting with the government, but most of the freed prisoners are now back on the battlefield, said Fawad Aman, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Ministry of Defense.

“These freed Taliban are playing a very critical role in Helmand. They are among the fiercest Taliban terrorists,” said Mr. Aman.

Mr. Talib served for years under the Taliban, first as a military commander and later as the Taliban’s unrecognized, or “shadow,” deputy governor of Helmand province. The province, the site of heavy fighting between U.S. and British troops and the Taliban, is a center for poppy cultivation for the narcotics trade, so is particularly prized by the insurgents.

Last year Mr. Talib was arrested by Afghan soldiers who recognized him as he tried to pass through a checkpoint on a road in the Sangin district in eastern Helmand, Afghan officials said. He was sent to Kabul for confinement, but within months was freed in the prisoner release, the officials said.

He soon resumed his old post of shadow deputy governor of Helmand, officials said. In June fighters overran remote districts in the province, and last month Mr. Talib collected fighters from throughout Helmand and adjacent provinces to surround Lashkargah for an attack.

Taliban fighters have seized most of the city in recent weeks, including a government television station, and this week began their own radio and television broadcasts.

A counterattack by commando units appeared to stem the advance by Tuesday. But Mr. Aman said the Taliban was using civilians and homes as shields in Lashkargah, slowing down the operation.

The civilian population was asked Tuesday by the Afghan army general leading the battle, Sami Sadat, to vacate their houses. Local residents questioned how it was safe for them to go outside their homes.

“I am fighting for the future of my people,” said Gen. Sadat, in a message to the population of Lashkargah. “We will not leave the Taliban alive.”

—Frotan Ghousuddin contributed to this article.