Taliban fighters announced Friday’s takeover of the Punjir Valley in northern Afghanistan at the foot of the Hindu Kush massif, Reuters reported, citing its sources. However, the movement has not yet issued an official statement. According to another Reuters source from the Taliban, fighting in the valley continues, but the progress was slowed by landmines on their way to the provincial capital.
Reports from a hard-to-reach valley bordered by mountains are difficult to verify. It was the natural barriers of the Punjir that helped defend the territory from the then Taliban rule in the 1990s and decades earlier during the Soviet occupation.
A spokesman for the opposition forces gathered in Punjir said that Taliban forces had reached the border between Kapisa and Punshir provinces, but that the attack was repulsed. “The defense of the bastion of Afghanistan cannot be broken through,” the spokesman wrote on Twitter.
Shooting
Proponents of the radical movement fired in Kabul to celebrate the alleged victory on Friday to celebrate “into the air,” the Afghan radio station Shamshad said, reporting 17 dead and 41 injured. Similar numbers of victims are reported by other Tolo stations.
Fourteen other people were injured in a celebratory shooting in Nangarhar province east of Kabul, a hospital spokesman told the Jalalabad administration.
Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid commented on the shooting on Twitter. “Avoid shooting into the air and thank Allah instead. Projectiles can injure civilians, so don’t shoot unless necessary, “he wrote.
Analyst Břetislav Tureček pointed out that celebratory shooting is part of the reverberations of war. “It can be very misleading to deduce something about Afghanistan’s political future from a celebratory shooting that kills seventeen people. After all, we see that the Taliban leadership has distanced itself from this form of celebration and called on people to praise God instead. It is an episode that has captivated the world, but more importantly, the preparation of a new government.
Airport
The Qatar ambassador to Afghanistan said that Qatari technicians, with the help of the Afghan authorities, had succeeded in reopening Kabul Airport, which could now receive humanitarian aid. According to him, it will soon be ready for commercial flights. A correspondent from Al Jazeera TV said the airport was already operating for domestic routes.
More than 120,000 foreigners and their Afghan associates were evacuated from the airport in the second half of August, who decided to leave Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of virtually the entire country, including the metropolis. The civilian part of the international airport was closed and the evacuations took place from the military part, which was guarded by American soldiers. They withdrew on August 31.
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