Taliban report seizing last holdout
Panjshir province north of Kabul falls, spokesman says
KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban said Monday that they seized the last province not in their control after their blitz through Afghanistan last month, overrunning forces who had opposed their takeover.
Thousands of Taliban fighters charged into eight districts of Panjshir province overnight, according to witnesses from the area who spoke on condition of anonymity because they feared for their safety.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed that the province, which is north of the capital, was now held by their fighters.
“We tried our best to solve the problem through negotiations, and they rejected talks and then we had to send our forces to fight,” Mujahid told a news conference later Monday in Kabul.
The resisting forces were led by the former vice president, Amrullah Saleh, and also the son of the iconic anti-Taliban fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Experts had doubted that the holdout efforts could succeed long term against the Taliban, whose rapid advance through Afghanistan met little resistance in the final days of America’s 20-year war in the country.
The U.S. withdrew its last troops a week ago and ended a harrowing airlift to evacuate Western citizens and their Afghan allies that was marred by scenes of desperation and horrific violence.
During that evacuation, thousands of people descended on Kabul’s airport, hoping to flee the country because they feared what the Taliban’s rule might hold, given their history of repression, particularly of women.
At one point, an Islamic State suicide bomber targeted the crowds, killing 13 American service members and 169 Afghans.
Many people are still hoping to leave the country, but with Kabul’s airport not yet running international flights, their choices are few.
In the country’s north, officials said Sunday that at least four planes chartered to evacuate several hundred people have been unable to leave the country for days.
But there were conflicting accounts about why.
The U.S. is under pressure to help the remaining Americans and green card holders leave the country, and it has promised to work with the new Taliban rulers do that — but it has given no time frame.
An Afghan official at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said that the would-be passengers were Afghans, many of whom did not have passports or visas, and thus were unable to leave. Speaking on condition of anonymity, he said they had left the airport while the situation was being sorted out.
But the U.S. has helped a family of four American citizens to flee through an overland route, according to an American official.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly due to the sensitivity of the matter, would not give details of the evacuation or say which country they went to.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are traveling to the Persian Gulf and Europe this week to discuss Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Taliban say they are working to repair Kabul’s airport, where only domestic flights have resumed and just during the day for now. Mujahid, the group’s spokesman, told reporters Monday that U.S. soldiers destroyed equipment before departing, including the radar system. The U.S. has said troops destroyed military equipment but left equipment useful for running a civilian airport, like fire trucks.
Technical experts from Qatar and Turkey have begun repairs.
The Taliban have pledged to allow anyone with the proper legal documents to leave the country — and several countries have said they are watching closely to see if the new rulers
make good on that pledge. The Taliban have generally promised to govern more moderately than when they were last in power in the late 1990s and became global pariahs for their harsh interpretation of Islamic law and restrictions on women.
Still, experts did not think the anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir had much of a chance, even given the area’s geographical advantage.
Nestled in the Hindu Kush mountains, the Panjshir Valley has a single narrow entrance. Local fighters held off the Soviets there in the 1980s and also, for a brief time, the Taliban a decade later under the leadership of Massoud.
Massoud’s son Ahmad called for an end to the fighting Sunday. The young British-schooled Massoud said his forces were ready to lay down their weapons but only if the Taliban agreed to end their assault. Late on Sunday dozens of vehicles loaded with Taliban fighters were seen swarming into the Panjshir Valley.
In a second statement Monday, Massoud accused the Taliban of attacking even as they were ready to agree to a cease-fire. He vowed to fight on, urged Afghans to join in their battle against the Taliban and chastised the international community for giving the Taliban a platform by opening negotiations with them.
There has been no statement from Saleh, who had declared himself the acting president after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country Aug. 15 as the Taliban reached the gates of the capital.
The whereabouts of Saleh and the young Massoud were not known Monday.