Afghan battle for last rebel valley
•Both sides claim victory in Panjshir •Taliban leader pledges ‘inclusive’ new regime
Battles raged on Saturday in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul as Taliban and opposition fighters vied for control of the last part of Afghanistan to hold out against the militant Islamist group.
Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said the districts of Khinj and Unabah had been taken, giving their forces control of four of the province’s seven districts.
Enamullah Samangani, a member of the group’s cultural commission, told Arab News that Taliban fighters were making territorial advances in the region.
“Still the war is on; our mujahideen are in Panjshir and they are gaining ground, in recent clashes the enemy has suffered massive casualties,” he said. “Soon we will have good news for the nation: Panjshir will be conquered and we will have a massive victory.”
A Taliban source said their Taliban’s advance was slowed by landmines placed on the road to the provincial capital, Bazarak.
But the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, a group of fighters loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said it had surrounded “thousands of terrorists” in Khawak pass and the Taliban had abandoned vehicles and equipment in the Dashte Rewak area. Front spokesman Fahim Dashti said there were “heavy clashes.”
Arab News could not independently verify the claims by either side. Panjshir is walled off by the Hindu Kush mountain range and accessible only through a narrow gorge.
The valley has been cut off by the Taliban, who have stopped movement to and from the region. Abdul Rahman, a 54-year-old resident of Panjshir, told Arab News he was trying to return home but was sent back to Charikar, the capital of neighboring Parwan province.
“Today we were looking to travel to Panjshir but we were forced to return, as the Taliban heard that we were traveling to Panjshir,” he said.
Panjshir has a long history of resistance. In the 1980s, the late commander Ahmad Shah Massoud — the father of the current resistance leader Massoud — defended the region from Soviet forces, which managed to seize many other parts of the country. In the 1990s, he led an offensive against the first Taliban regime. He was killed in 2001, weeks before the Taliban were ousted by the US-led invasion.
Seizing Panjshir would give the Taliban complete control of Afghanistan, something they did not achieve when they ruled the country between 1996 and 2001.
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who is widely expected to lead Afghanistan’s new government, said it would “include all factions of the Afghan people.”
He said: “We are doing our utmost to improve their living conditions. The government will provide security, because it is necessary for economic development.”