LASHKAR GHAH:Some 25 soldiers and 27 policemen have been killed here in separate incidents.
Afghan security forces, fighting largely alone since the withdrawal of international forces in 2014, have been struggling for months to hold back the insurgency in Helmand, where the Taliban inflicted hundreds of casualties on NATO troops during years of fighting.
At least 11,000 civilians were killed or wounded in Afghanistan last year, in the worst year for civilian casualties since the United Nations began keeping records in 2009.
