Taliban stepped up offensive in Panjshir, the only Afghan province not yet under their control

The Taliban stepped up the offensive on Saturday in Panjshir, the only 34 province in Afghanistan that has not completely fallen into their power, and managed to take control of four of the eight districts in the region., given the weakness of the opposition troops.

The Islamist formation affirmed this Saturday to have already captured half of the districts of the northern province of Panjshir, and that 90 percent of a fifth district is under its control after the intensification of attacks on opposition troops in recent days.

In the last 24 hours, “Several commanders (and) dozens of militiamen and soldiers” died and “many of their checkpoints and bases were captured by our mujahedin”, he assured the press agency Efe the spokesperson for the Taliban, Bilal Karimi.

“Our mujahedin are advancing towards the center of Panjshir and the enemy is in panic. Some of them have already started to surrender to our mujahedin. “, so “we hope that the remaining parts of the Panjshir will be captured soon,” he concluded.

Amid the strong Taliban offensive against the the only territory that has not fallen into their hands, the situation in the valley is “hard”, as an Afghan resistance member who requested anonymity explained to Efe.

“Thousands of Taliban rushed into the province from all directions, from all neighboring provinces, and resistance forces are under unprecedented pressure“, Held.

Resistance difficulties

The region has faced great difficulties since the Taliban decided to attack Panjshir after the failure of the peace negotiations., they therefore do not have exact information on the advances of the Taliban or the capture of neighborhoods, since the telecommunications system is completely down and it is almost impossible to coordinate the informationadded.

The fighters have suspended mobile phone and Internet services and cut all supply routes to the province in order to speed up their surrender., a problem that has started to raise concerns about the humanitarian situation that could be unleashed in the region.

“We hope that civilians in the region (Panjshir) will be treated on the basis of humanitarian laws and that they will not be injured in the fighting. “, the former Afghan foreign minister said on his official Twitter account, Haneef Atmar.

In this sense, the former minister called on the two parties to the conflict be patient and “allow the negotiating teams to approach the problem in a peaceful manner”.

After nearly 20 days since the Taliban conquered in just over two weeks 33 of Afghanistan’s 34 provincial capitals, including Kabul on August 15, The Panjshir is currently the only one not under the control of the Islamists.

The forces of this last stronghold are led by the former Afghan vice-president, Amrullah Saleh, self-proclaimed the new president of Afghanistan after former president Ashraf Ghani fled the country during the takeover of Kabul, and Ahmad Massoud, son of the late Afghan commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, “the lion of Panjshir”, a legend for having stood up to the Soviets and the Taliban.

The Panjshir was also the center of resistance against the Islamist group during the former Taliban regime, between 1996 and 2001, which ended in an American invasion that ended this week after nearly two decades of war.

(With information from EFE)

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