In Afghanistan, armed resistance groups have recaptured three districts from the Taliban. These are areas in Baghlan province, north of the capital Kabul. That province borders Panjshir, the only province not yet under the influence of the Taliban. Former Vice President Saleh, among others, fled there. He is sitting there together with the local leader Ahmad Massoud and commandos from the army.
“The resistance is still alive,” writes former defense minister Bismillah Momhammadi of Afghanistan on Twitter. He also joined the resistance group. According to unconfirmed reports, 15 Taliban fighters and at least 200 resistance fighters were killed in the fighting.
It is difficult to say exactly how much resistance there is to the Taliban. According to correspondent Aletta André, in the first few days there were reports from the Panjshir Valley from about 100 commandos, who may also have helicopters and weapons. “But in the days after that, reports came again from more soldiers who joined,” she says in the statement NOS Radio 1 News. “And now in these districts there were also civilian militias.”
Call for US support
Panjshir Province is led by Ahmad Massoud, the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who successfully resisted Soviet forces in Afghanistan in the 1980s and later fought the Taliban. Massoud Jr. has pledged to keep the Taliban out of his area and early last week in an opinion piece in The Washington Post the United States for aid and weapons.
“Whatever happens, my mujahideen fighters and I will defend Panjshir as the last bastion of freedom in Afghanistan. Our morale is intact. We know from experience what lies ahead. But we need more weapons, more ammunition and more gear.” he wrote. “The Taliban are not just a problem for the Afghans. Afghanistan under the control of the Taliban will become a ground zero of radical Islamic terrorism.”
It is not clear how many people have joined Massoud. He writes in the op-ed that several Afghans, military personnel and former members of the Afghan elite troops have joined his force, but that unless he gets help, repelling a Taliban attack is unlikely to succeed.
The Russian ambassador to Afghanistan said yesterday that resistance against the Taliban is doomed to failure. “They have no military opportunities,” the ambassador said. “As far as we know they have 7,000 armed people and already problems with fuel. They have tried to fly a helicopter, but they have no fuel and no gear.”
Taliban
The Taliban, meanwhile, have announced that they will make known “within weeks” how they will govern Afghanistan. According to a spokesperson, experts in the fields of law, religion and foreign policy are working on a model of government. One of the Taliban’s founders, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, has arrived in Kabul for those talks. The terror organization also ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, when it conducted a reign of terror.
NATO says some 12,000 foreigners and Afghan employees from embassies and international aid organizations have been evacuated since the Taliban entered Kabul. “The evacuation process is slow,” a NATO official told Reuters news agency. “It’s dangerous and we don’t want any kind of fighting with the Taliban or civilians outside the airport.”
According to correspondent Aletta André, the evacuations at the airport are now going smoothly. “But I still hear stories about the chaos outside the airport. There are also constant stories that people are told that once they are at the airport, they will be taken by the US anyway. That continues to bring large numbers of people to to the airport.”
At least 12 people have been killed in and around Kabul airport since Sunday.
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