Taliban claim control of Panjshir, oppn says resistance will continue

However, Massoud remained defiant and said his force, drawn from the remnants of the regular Afghan army as well as local militia fighters, was still fighting

File photo - Armored vehicles are seen in Panjshir Valley, north of Kabul, Afghanistan

The Taliban claimed victory on Monday in the last part of Afghanistan still holding out against their rule, declaring that the capture of the Panjshir valley completed their takeover of the country and they would unveil a new government soon. Pictures on social media showed Taliban members standing in front of the gate of the Panjshir provincial governor’s compound after days of fighting with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRFA), commanded by Panjshiri leader Ahmad Massoud. “Panjshir, which was the last hideout of the escapee enemy, is captured,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a news conference.

However, Massoud remained defiant, and said his force, drawn from the remnants of the regular Afghan army as well as local militia fighters, was still fighting. “We are in Panjshir and our Resistance will continue,” he said on Twitter. He also said he was safe, but gave no details on his whereabouts. The NRFA’s head of foreign relations, Ali Maisam Nazary, said on Facebook: “The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight.”

The steep valley north of Kabul was long famed for holding out against attack, including both by Soviet troops in the 1980s and the Taliban during their previous rule in the 1990s. It was the main redoubt of the Northern Alliance resistance fighters who toppled the Taliban with U.S. air support in 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. The Taliban assured the people of the valley – who are ethnically distinct from the mainly Pashtun Taliban – that there would be no “discriminatory act against them”. “They are our brothers and would work together for a joint purpose and welfare of the country,” Mujahid said.

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