KABUL, Afghanistan –  A provincial official says Afghan forces are still battling to push the Taliban out of a strategic southern district in Helmand province.

Aktar Mohammad, a provincial council member, said Friday that the situation is unchanged in the Sangin district, where intense battles have raged for a week after the Taliban overrun much of the area.

Mohammad says Afghan reinforcements have arrived in Sangin, backed by special operations forces that were dispatched earlier in the week.

Britain has also sent a small contingent of advisers to the region.

Mohammad says he and most residents of Sangin fled to the Helmand provincial capital, Lashkar Gah, when the fighting escalated.

Sangin is a prize for the Taliban as it sits on routes for drug, arms and other contraband that fund the insurgency.