TALIBAN FIGHTERS, RESISTANCE FORCES BATTLE FOR PANJSHIR
Reports said Taliban, Afghan resistance fighters continued to battle over Panjshir valley on Saturday
KABUL: Three Taliban sources said the Islamist militia on Friday seized the Panjshir valley north of Kabul, the last province of Afghanistan holding out against it, although a resistance leader denied the claim.
“By the grace of Allah Almighty, we are in control of the entire Afghanistan. The troublemakers have been defeated and Panjshir is now under our command,” said one Taliban commander.
Deafening volleys of celebratory gunfire resounded all over Kabul and Facebook accounts were full of mentions of the fall of Panjshir. It was not immediately possible to confirm the reports, which if true would give the Taliban complete control of Afghanistan, something they did not achieve when they ruled the country between 1996 and 2001.
Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, one of the leaders of the opposition forces, said his side had not given up. “We have held the ground, we have resisted.”
KABUL: Taliban and opposition forces were fighting on Saturday for control of the Panjshir valley north of Kabul, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the insurgent group, according to reports.
Taliban sources had said on Friday the group had seized control of the valley, although the resistance denied it had fallen.
The Taliban have so far issued no public declaration that they had taken the valley, which resisted their rule when they were last in power in Kabul in 1996-2001.
A spokesman for the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband heights on the border between Kapisa province and Panjshir but were pushed back. “The defence of the stronghold of Afghanistan is unbreakable,” Fahim Dashty said in a tweet.
A Taliban source said fighting was continuing in Panjshir but the advance had been slowed by landmines placed on the road to
the capital Bazarak and the provincial governor’s compound. “Demining and offensives are both going on at the same time,” the source said.
It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, which is walled off by mountains except for a narrow entrance.
Unconfirmed reports in the local media said that at least 17 people were killed and 41 injured in the celebratory gunfire all over Kabul on Friday as news spread of the Taliban’s takeover of Panjshir.
The Emergency Hospital in Kabul said two people were killed and 20 wounded by the salvos, as the Taliban tweeted a stern admonishment warning its fighters to stop.
“Avoid firing in the air and thank God instead,” said chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, tipped to become the new regime’s information minister.
“The weapons and bullets given to you are public property. No one has the right to waste them. The bullets can also harm civilians, don’t shoot in vain.”
Pak spy chief in Kabul
Pakistan’s spy chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed flew into Kabul on Saturday, sources in both capitals said.
It was not clear what his agenda was, but a senior official in Pakistan had said earlier in the week that Hameed, who heads the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, could help the Taliban reorganise the Afghan military.
Washington has accused Pakistan and the ISI of backing the Taliban in the group’s two-decade fight against the US-backed government in Kabul, although Islamabad has denied the charges. After the Islamist group seized Kabul this month, analysts have said Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan will be much enhanced.
Government next week
The Taliban source also said the announcement of a new government would be pushed back to the next week.
Earlier, other Taliban sources said the group’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar would lead a new Afghan government set to be announced soon. Baradar would be joined by Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob, the son of late Taliban co-founder Mullah Omar, and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai in senior positions, three sources said.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s ambassador to Afghanistan said a technical team was able to reopen Kabul airport to receive aid, according to Qatar’s Al Jazeera news channel, which also cited its correspondent as saying domestic flights had restarted.
The airport has been closed since the US completed operations on August 30 to evacuate diplomats, foreigners and Afghans deemed at risk from the Taliban. However, tens of thousands of people could not be flown out.
The Taliban’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, also said that one of the main foreign exchange dealers in the capital had reopened.
The United Nations has said it will convene an international aid conference in Geneva on September 13 to help avert what UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres called a “looming humanitarian catastrophe”.