Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
Eight militia Taliban reportedly killed after clashing with forces opposing the group’s leadership Ahmad Massoud from Panjshir Valley, Afghanistan, Monday (30/8) evening local time.
The spokesman for Massoud’s loyalist force known as the National Resistance Forces (NRF), Fahim Dashti, said the fighting began when the Taliban attacked NRF posts west of the entrance to the Panjshir Valley.
Dashti estimates the Taliban are trying to test how strong the NRF’s defenses are by launching the attack.
In addition to killing eight Taliban militants, 8 members of the group and two NRF soldiers were also injured.
Reuters could not immediately contact a Taliban spokesman regarding the clashes.
The clashes come a day after the last US military personnel left Afghanistan and ended the United States’ invasion of the country for the past 20 years.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Massoud is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, one of the influential mujahideen commanders who helped the Soviet Union withdraw from Afghanistan during the 1980s war.
Since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban last week, the 32 -year -old Massoud has vowed to fight the group.
Massoud claims to have rallied his troops in the Panjshir Valley to fight the Taliban.
The 1989-born man even claimed that some of the Afghan personnel still surviving in the country, including some elite special forces units, had joined his forces.
He also said he had sought the help of Western countries to fight the Taliban.
The Panjshir Valley, located 150 kilometers north of the capital Kabul, is the center of Afghanistan’s guerrilla war that has never been touched by foreign forces, not even the United States.
The area has been made the headquarters of Massoud-led anti-Taliban forces.
Not only from Massoud’s loyalist forces, the Taliban also faced various threats from several local militias in Baghlan.
Al Qaeda and ISIS-K also threaten the current Taliban regime in Afghanistan, especially after a series of terror attacks in the capital Kabul in recent days.
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