Taliban fighters. yunhap news
The Islamic militant group, the Taliban, recaptured three areas of northern Afghanistan and besieged the stronghold of the Panjishir Valley.
According to Reuters news agency on the 23rd (local time), a Taliban spokesperson announced the situation on the same day, saying “there are no confirmed battles.”
Bannu, Desala and Pulegesar areas in the northern Baglan province were a symbol of armed resistance to the Taliban that occupied Kabul on the 15th, which was secured by an anti-Taliban militant group last week.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter: “Until the 23rd, Taliban troops are stationed in Badahshan, Tahar and Andarab districts near the Panjisir Valley.”
The anti-Taliban militant group led by Ahmad Masoud, son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, who is called the ‘Wealth of Afghanistan’, used the Panjisir Valley as a base of resistance against the Soviet Union and the Taliban before 2001.
Massoud, who had previously absorbed part of the Afghan regular army and special forces, requested negotiations for a comprehensive government for Afghan citizens, and said that he would resist any attempts by the Taliban to enter the valley.
Alemara, an app promoting the Taliban regime, said on the afternoon of the 22nd that hundreds of troops were heading towards Panjisir. Although no battle has been confirmed, Masoud said both sides were “ready to engage in military action”.
A spokesman for Mujahid said they had secured the Salang Pass on the highway from southern Afghanistan to the north and blocked the enemy’s Panjishir Valley. “The Islamic Emirates (the name of the new country in Afghanistan occupied by the Taliban) is working to resolve the issue peacefully,” he added.
