Eight Taliban killed in Panjshir fighting, say Afghan resistance forces

As the US troops completely withdrew from a 20-year long war in Afghanistan, the Taliban forces clashed with militia fighters in the Panjshir valley north of Afghan capital Kabul on Monday night, losing eight, a representative of the main anti-Taliban opposition group said.

Panjshir has been the only province to hold out against the Taliban since the fall of Kabul on August 15, although there has also been fighting in neighbouring Baghlan province between Taliban and local militia forces.

National Resistance Forces spokesman Fahim Dashti, a group loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said the fighting occurred on the western entrance to the valley where the Taliban attacked NRF positions.

He said the attack, which may have been a probe to test the valley's defences, was repulsed with eight Taliban killed and a similar number wounded, while two members of the NRF forces were wounded, Reuters reported.

It was not immediately possible to reach a Taliban spokesman for comment.

Massoud, son of the former anti-Soviet mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, has established himself in the Panjshir valley with a force of several thousand, made up of local militias and remnants of army and special forces units.

He said his forces will resist if their province in the narrow and mountainous valley is attacked but has called for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban.

A significant force of Taliban fighters has been moved to the valley but the two sides have so far been engaged in negotiations and have avoided fighting.

Proclaiming “full independence” for Afghanistan after the last US soldiers flew out following 20 years of war, the Taliban celebrated with gunfire that echoed across Kabul.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said early Tuesday that “American soldiers left the Kabul airport, and our nation got its full independence,” the Associated Press reported.

(With inputs from agency)  

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• Eight Taliban killed
• National Resistance Forces
• Panjshir fighting
• Afghanistan