Clashes Erupt in Northern Afghanistan as Taliban Pursue Talks With Former Foes

The Taliban fought deadly battles with budding resistance forces in northern Afghanistan, as political negotiations on a broader federal government moved forward in Kabul and accessibility to the city’s U.S.-operate airport remained challenging for thousands of Afghans attempting to flee.

Whilst most of Afghanistan’s army and stability forces collapsed, some of the Taliban’s most dedicated foes have retreated to the Panjshir valley northeast of Kabul, pledging to go on the fight from the country’s only province not under Taliban sway.

They involve the fallen Afghan republic’s defense minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who statements to be Afghanistan’s authentic chief after President Ashraf Ghani abandoned his duties and fled the place Aug. 15 and Ahmad Massoud, a son of renowned Panjshiri commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Video posted on social media showed casualties and preventing concerning Taliban forces and anti-Taliban militias in the Andarab valley of the northern Baghlan province, adjoining Panjshir, and large convoys of Taliban reinforcements in U.S.-bought Ford Rangers and Humvees traveling the Islamist movement’s white flag.

Whilst the militias in Baghlan are allied with the forces in Panjshir, they acted independently in attacking the Taliban, said Ali Nazary, head of foreign relations for the new Countrywide Resistance Front that is centered in Panjshir and involves some 1,000 Afghan army commandos who refused to surrender when the relaxation of the military melted away, as properly as some helicopters.