Panjshir Valley:
The Taliban on Wednesday referred to as on fighters in the holdout bastion of the Panjshir Valley to lay down their arms, as the resistance movement stated it had repulsed heavy attacks.
The rugged mountain valley with towering snow-capped peaks — which starts about 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of the capital Kabul — is the centre of Afghanistan’s most significant pocket of armed anti-Taliban forces.
The National Resistance Front (NRF), comprising anti-Taliban fighters and former Afghan safety forces, have vowed to defend the enclave as the terror group sends fighters to encircle the region.
“My brothers, we tried our best to solve the Panjshir problem with talks and negotiations… but unfortunately all in vain,” senior Taliban official Amir Khan Muttaqi stated, in an audio message to the men and women of the Panjshir posted on Twitter.
“Now that the talks have failed and Mujahiddin (Taliban) have surrounded Panjshir, there are still people inside that don’t want the problems to be solved peacefully,” he added.
“Now it is up to you to talk to them,” the Taliban message to the Panjshir men and women stated. “Those who want to fight, tell them it is enough.”
Bismillah Mohammadi, Afghanistan’s defence minister ahead of the government fell last month, stated the Taliban had launched a renewed assault on Panjshir on Tuesday evening.
“Last night the Taliban terrorists attacked Panjshir, but were defeated,” Mohammadi tweeted Wednesday, claiming 34 Taliban had been killed and 65 wounded.
“Our people should not worry. They retreated with heavy casualties.”
Residents and fighters in Panjshir, a lot of of whom fought the Taliban when they had been last in energy from 1996 to 2001, provided a defiant message.
“We are ready to defend it till the last drop of our blood,” stated one resident.
“Everyone has a weapon on their shoulder and ready to fire,” a further stated. “From the youngest to the oldest, they all talk about resistance.”
– ‘Try their luck’ –
As the last US soldiers boarded their flight out of Afghanistan in the Kabul dark late Monday, residents of Panjshir stated the Taliban had attacked the valley on two fronts — the Khawak pass in the west, and from Shotol to the south.
“Perhaps they wanted to try their luck,” NRF official Fahim Dashti stated in a video posted Tuesday by the US broadcaster Voice of America’s Dari language service. “By the grace of God, luck wasn’t on their side.”
Dashti reported seven or eight Taliban fighters had been killed in Monday’s clashes along with one or two resistance fighters.
The Panjshir has immense symbolic worth in Afghanistan as the region that has resisted occupation by invaders.
“We defended it during the era of the Russians, the era of the British, the previous era of the Taliban… we will continue to defend it,” one fighter stated.
Ahmad Massoud, one of the NRF’s leaders, is the son of the late guerrilla commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was dubbed the “Lion of Panjshir” for holding out, initial against Soviet and then Taliban forces.
The valley has restricted entry points and its geography presents a organic military benefit — defending units can use higher positions to properly target attacking forces.
– Anticipating assault –
This week, Panjshir fighters held military education in a show of force, with males carrying heavy logs on their shoulders crossing chest-deep icy rivers.
Above their armoured automobiles and more than their bases fluttered their flag, a challenge to the Taliban’s white banner now hauled up across the rest of the nation.
Many Afghans are terrified of a repeat of the Taliban’s initial rule from 1996 to 2001, which was infamous for their therapy of girls and girls, as properly as a brutal justice program.
The NRF has set up machine gun nests, mortars and surveillance posts fortified with sandbags in anticipation of a Taliban assault.
Communications are tough with the valley, with Taliban forces on 3 sides. Internet into Panjshir has been on and off repeatedly in current days.
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