Taliban declare victory in Battle of Panjshir

A few days after the Taliban invaded the Afghan capital, Kabul Amrullah Saleh, deputy prime minister of the fugitive government, said he had formed a resistance group in the Panjshir Valley.

Saleh allied himself with Ahmed Masoud, The son of the legendary resistance fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud who was assassinated in 2011. Together they lead the National Resistance Front (NRF after the English name National Resistance Front).

Panjshir is a region located about ten miles north of Kabul and consists mainly of a narrow valley surrounded by mountain peaks of up to 3,000 meters in height.

the past few days The Taliban militia attacked the Panjshir Valley and the resistance movement positions. The Taliban seem to have forced the NRF to withdraw, and there were reports from the Taliban themselves that they had already captured the Panjshir Valley a few days earlier. However, it is difficult to confirm the victorious reports. The resistance movement categorically denied on social media that it was going to be defeated.

But eyewitness accounts from this weekend’s battles indicate that the National Salvation Front is under severe pressure. The Taliban seized official buildings in Panjshir. Anthony Lloyd, a British Times journalist who has followed the Taliban’s advance in the Panjshir Valley, It states that they have occupied four out of the seven districts of Panjshir and that they face little resistance.

Lloyd also saw captured resistance fighters handcuffed and interrogated, and described how Taliban fighters attacked a local television team and smashed their equipment.

The Panjshirdalen has a legendary flicker in general and for Afghans in particular. It’s not a big area. Panjshir Province is comparable to Jutland in terms of size and has a population of less than 200,000.

But nature is wonderful. American expert on Afghanistan Nancy Dupree, who wrote a tour guide for Afghanistan in the 1970s, called the valley “the most scenic in the country.” And the people, mostly Tajiks, are considered invincible. The fact that the valley is also rich in gems such as emerald does not completely diminish the legendary aura.

The extended and inaccessible valley is also a symbol of Afghan resistance since Ahmad Shah Massoud managed to resist the Soviet army in the 1980s and the Taliban in the 1990s.

But today’s Resistance Army has a tougher seat than the legendary Massoud. His units managed to get supplies and reinforcements through Tajikistan in the north. On the other hand, the National Resistance Front is surrounded by Taliban forces. That is why Massoud the Younger, who incidentally received training at the British Military Academy Sandhurst, appealed for arms assistance from NATO and elsewhere. So far in vain.