Sangin

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Sangin
View of Sangin Valley
Province	Helmand
Population	14,000
Area - Elevation	888
Time zone	UTC+4:30 Kabul

Sangin is a town in the Helmand province of Afghanistan, with population of approximately 14,000 people. It is located on 32°4′24″N, 64°50′2″E in the valley of the Helmand River at 888 m altitude,95 km to the North of Lashkar Gah. Sangin is notorious as one of the central locations of the opium trade in the south of the country, and is also a town that has traditionally supported the Taliban.^[1] Sangin also houses the main bazaar for Sangin District.

On 31 July 2005 a United Nations convoy of six vehicles came under attack by Taliban forces laying in ambush some 2 km south of the town. All personnel including the international UN staff member managed to escape by reversing their route only to come under fire by a US Army patrol of Humvee vehicles that were advancing to the location of the fire fight. Two Afghan personnel, one driver and the armed guard commander from the Ministry of Interior were wounded by the friendly fire and evacuated by helicopter to Kandahar. The armoured vehicle that the UN worker was travelling in was unable to be driven due to being hit with approximately fifteen rounds of fire including two rounds from a .50 calliber machine gun. The retreating Taliban were identified crossing the nearby river some 1,500 metres to the West and were killed by a single 500 lb bomb delivered by air support from a USAF B-52 bomber.

As of summer 2006, British and Canadian troops have established a forward operating base on the outskirts of the town and are engaged in heavy fighting with Taliban insurgents and allied opium traffickers. A number of British and Canadian troops were killed during fighting in the town, including Cpl Bryan Budd (3 PARA) who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.