The Afghan forces thwarted the Taliban’s attack on India-built Salma Dam in Herat province, said the Afghan government, adding that the terror group has “suffered heavy casualties and fled the area as a result of counter-attacks”.
In a tweet, Afghan defense ministry spokesperson Fawad Aman said Taliban terrorists attempted an attack on Salma Dama, popularly known as the India-Afghanistan friendship dam, on Tuesday night.
“The Taliban attack on Salma Dam failed! Terrorist Taliban attacked the #Salma Dam in Herat province to destroy it last night. But, fortunately, they have suffered heavy casualties and fled the area as a result of counter-attacks of ANDSF,” Fawad Aman tweeted.
Last month too Salma dam was targeted by the Taliban rockets and the rockets and artillery shells have landed close to the dam, which has not been hit.
Salma dam in Herat’s Cheshte Sharif district is one of the largest dams in Afghanistan and provides irrigation water and electricity to thousands of families in the province.
Salma Dam has a water storage capacity of 640 million cubic meters and an irrigation capacity of 2,00,000 acres of farmland from the Chishti Sharif District of Herat to the Zulfiqar area on the Iran Border.
This dam has been India’s most expensive infrastructural project in Afghanistan in recent years.
The attack comes at a time when the Taliban has intensified its attacks on civilians and Afghan forces.
Over the last few weeks, the Taliban have captured several districts in Afghanistan including Takhar, the country’s northeastern province.
Nationwide, the Taliban controls 223 districts, with 116 contested and the government holding 68, according to the Long War Journal, whose calculations tally with CNN’s estimates. It says 17 of 34 provincial capitals are directly threatened by the Taliban.
As the Taliban makes sweeping gains across the country in the last two months, Afghanistan’s IT and other basic infrastructures including dams, roads, trade infrastructure have come under frequent attack.
Surjitt Sahani
