Afghanistan: Panjshir forces announce the capture of hundreds of Taliban | Taliban news

[ad_1]

Taliban and opposition forces continue to fight for control of the Panjshir valley north of Kabul, with fighters who say they have captured hundreds of Taliban soldiers.

The Afghan National Resistance Front, which gathers forces loyal to local leader Ahmed Masoud, said on Sunday that it had surrounded “thousands of terrorists” in the Khawak Pass and that the Taliban had abandoned vehicles and equipment in Dashti Rawak district.

National Salvation Front spokesman Fahim Dashti said “violent clashes” were continuing.

Charles Stratford of Al Jazeera, which is based in the capital, Kabul, said sources on the ground said hundreds of Taliban fighters were captured on Sunday.

Sources inside the valley say the National Salvation Front claims to have captured about 1,500 Taliban. “It looks like these fighters are trapped,” Stratford said.

Dashti wrote on Twitter that the Baryan district had been completely cleared of Taliban fighters.

Dashti said nearly 1,000 Taliban fighters were killed, wounded or captured after the exit road was closed behind them. The information cannot be independently verified.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Twitter on Sunday that its forces had captured five of the province’s seven districts. Karimi said the areas of Khanj and Annaba had been captured.

Mujahideen [Taliban fighters] Advance towards the center [of the province],” he wrote.

Another handicap

Panjshir is the last Afghan province holding out against the armed group that came to power last month.

Both sides claimed to have the upper hand in Panjshir but neither side could provide conclusive evidence to prove this. The Taliban were unable to control the valley when they ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasized the fragile situation.

“My military assessment is that conditions are likely to develop into a civil war. I don’t know if the Taliban will be able to consolidate their power and establish governance.

Milley said that if the Taliban cannot suppress the resistance, it will “in turn lead to the reconfiguration of al-Qaeda or the growth of ISIS or other terrorist groups” over the next three years.

An Italian medical relief organization said Taliban forces pushed further into the Panjshir valley on Friday night and reached the village of Annaba, where the group’s medical facilities are located.

Panjshir, famous for its natural defenses, was not penetrated by Soviet forces or the Taliban [Ahmad Sahel Arman/AFP]’fog of war’

Bill Roggio, managing editor of the US-based Long War Journal, said Sunday that there was still a “fog of war” with unconfirmed reports. Both sides claim that they inflicted heavy losses on each other.

“The Taliban army has been strengthened with 20 years of war and make no mistake, the Taliban have trained an army,” Roggio wrote in a tweet on Twitter, adding that “the possibilities are long” for the Panjshir resistance.

The Taliban army has been injected with a huge amount of weapons and ammunition after the withdrawal of the United States and the collapse of the Afghan National Army [Afghan National Army],” he added.

Ali Maysam Nazari – who is not in Panjshir but is still a spokesman for the resistance – said the force of the resistance “will never fail”.

But former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who is hiding in Panjshir alongside Massoud – the son of the legendary anti-Taliban leader Ahmed Shah Massoud – warned of a grim situation.

In a statement, Saleh spoke of a “large-scale humanitarian crisis” where “thousands of people have been displaced by the Taliban attack.”

Pro-Taliban social media boasted of capturing swathes of the valley, but Nick Waters of investigative website Bellingcat said the posts did not include verifiable images to support the claims.

“It would be very easy to verify a video showing the Taliban inside the Panjshir Valley,” Waters said.

Surrounded by jagged peaks covered with snow, the Panjshir Valley provides a natural defensive advantage, as fighters melt in the face of advancing forces, then launch firing ambushes from the high peaks down the valley.

.

[ad_2]