VICTORY COMES AFTER HEAVY FIGHTING

The Taliban’s victory followed an extended period of heavy fighting between resistance guerrillas and Afghanistan’s new rulers. Resistance fighters set up a base in the Panjshir Valley days after the Taliban seized control of Kabul last month, convinced that they could hold a valley that was never conquered by the Taliban in the 1990s nor by the Soviet Union in its nearly decadelong occupation in the 1980s.

News of the conquest came after a brutal weekend that placed the Taliban’s treatment of women again in the spotlight as it prepares to announce Afghanistan’s new leadership and welcomes a resumption of international aid that could be contingent on the new regime protecting basic human rights.

A policewoman was beaten and shot dead by Taliban militants in front of relatives at her home in central Ghowr province on Saturday, the BBC reported, citing eyewitnesses. The Taliban denied killing the woman — who, according to reports, was eight months pregnant — and said it was investigating the incident.