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The Panjshir Valley, in the Hindu Kush mountains north of the Afghan capital Kabul, has long
been the heart of military resistance in Afghanistan and looks like it is becoming the center of
a gathering of “resistance” forces against Taliban rule.
Since mid-August, forces opposed to the rule of the Afghan Taliban have gathered in the
valley under the leadership of Ahmad Massoud, son of the famed Afghan resistance fighter
Ahmad Shah Massoud.
Overthrown Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh – who declared himself the “acting
president” of Afghanistan – has joined Massoud’s forces.
Panjshir is a long, narrow valley girded on either side by steep mountains, with only
one major point of exit and entry when approaching from Kabul, topography that makes it difficult
to conquer because incoming militaries are forced to approach through a narrow gorge.
The valley’s name translates to “five lions”, although other translations claim
its name may refer to five mountain peaks located down the length of the valley.
Between 1980 and 1985, the Panjshir Valley witnessed at least nine unsuccessful major
Soviet offensives to retake the region, with Ahmad Shah Massoud’s forces resisting wave
after wave of military operations that involved ground forces, airborne units and helicopter
assaults.
A common tactic by Ahmad Shah Massoud’s forces at the time was to allow Soviet forces
into the valley and to then cripple or cut them off with harassing fire from the higher
ground of the mountains.
After the Soviet withdrawal, the collapse of the Afghan government at the time, and
the first Taliban takeover, the area saw renewed fighting from 1996 as Massoud’s forces fought
against the Taliban under the banner of the multi-ethnic Northern Alliance.
Taliban forces remained unable to dislodge the Northern Alliance from its Panjshir stronghold
until 2001, when Massoud was assassinated in a targeted suicide attack in Takhar province,
just two days before the 9/11 attacks on the US.
The ensuing US invasion removed the group from power.
Twenty years later, as US and NATO forces withdrew from the country following a peace
deal between the former and the Taliban, its forces swept across Afghanistan, capturing
33 out of 34 provinces in a lightning offensive over several weeks.
The one province that remains outside of their control is Panjshir.
Massoud has also said that he was open to a negotiated settlement with the Taliban.
On September 4, heavy fighting was reported between the two sides.
A spokesman for the National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan, which groups opposition
forces loyal to Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband heights on the border
between Kapisa province and Panjshir but were pushed back.
A Taliban source said fighting was continuing in Panjshir but the advance had been slowed
by landmines placed on the road to the capital Bazarak and the provincial governor’s compound.
“Demining and offensives are both going on at the same time,” the source said.
Fighting was reported between the Taliban and resistance forces in Afghanistan’s Panjshir
Valley, the last region of the country holding out against the armed group.
A spokesman for the National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan, which groups opposition
forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband heights
on the border between Kapisa province and Panjshir but were pushed back.
Facing the challenge of morphing from rebels to rulers, the Taliban appears determined
to snuff out the Panjshir resistance before announcing who will lead the country in the
aftermath of Monday’s US troop withdrawal, which was supposed to end two decades of war.
Fighters from the NRF – made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces
– are understood to have stockpiled a significant armoury in the valley, 50 miles north of Kabul
and guarded by a narrow gorge.
Celebratory gunfire rang out in the capital Kabul overnight as rumours spread that the
valley had fallen.
The Emergency Hospital in Kabul said two people were killed and 20 wounded by the salvos,
as the Taliban tweeted a stern admonishment warning its fighters to stop.
“Avoid firing in the air and thank God instead,” said chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, tipped
to become the new regime’s information minister.
“The weapons and bullets given to you are public property.
No one has the right to waste them.
The bullets can also harm civilians, don’t shoot in vain.”
In Panjshir, former Vice-President Amrullah Saleh, holed out alongside Ahmad Massoud – the
son of anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud – admitted the perilous position of the
NRF.
“The situation is difficult, we have been under invasion,” Saleh said in a video message.
“The resistance is continuing and will continue.”
Taliban and resistance tweets suggested the key district of Paryan had changed hands several
times in the last few days, but that also could not be independently verified.
United States General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscored
the tenuous situation in Panjshir.
“My military estimate is, is that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war.
I don’t know if the Taliban is going to be able to consolidate power and establish
governance,” Milley told Fox News on Saturday from Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Milley said if they cannot that will “in turn lead to a reconstitution of Al Qaeda
or a growth of ISIS or other myriad of terrorist groups” over the next three years.
Away from the valley, the international community was coming to terms with having to deal with
the new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is due on Sunday in Qatar, a key player in the Afghan
situation and the location of the Taliban’s political office.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is also set to convene a high-level meeting on Afghanistan
in Geneva on September 13 to focus on humanitarian assistance for the country.
Afghanistan’s new rulers have pledged to be more accommodating than during their first
stint in power, which also came after years of conflict – first the Soviet invasion
of 1979, and then a bloody civil war.
They have promised a more “inclusive” government that represents Afghanistan’s
complex ethnic makeup – though women are unlikely to be included at the top levels.
Meanwhile, there were some signs of normality creeping back in the Afghan capital.
The first commercial flight took off on Saturday from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif after the airport’s
runway was repaired.
Qatar’s ambassador to Afghanistan also said a technical team was able to reopen Kabul
airport to receive aid.
The UN has already restarted humanitarian flights to parts of Afghanistan, while the
country’s flag carrier Ariana Afghan Airlines resumed domestic flights on Friday and the
United Arab Emirates sent a plane carrying “urgent medical and food aid”.
The airport has been closed since the US completed operations on August 30 to evacuate diplomats,
foreigners and Afghans deemed at risk from the Taliban.
However, tens of thousands of people could not be flown out.
Taliban’s Mujahid also said one of the main foreign exchange dealers in the capital had
reopened.
Impoverished Afghanistan’s economy has been thrown into disarray by the takeover by the
Taliban.
Many banks are closed and cash is in short supply.
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