The Taliban said road links to Panjshir valley are now open, and food and other supplies can now be transported. Soon after declaring they had taken over the valley and ended remnants of resistance against their rule, the group said electricity, cellphone and internet services would be restored soon. “Thank God that we do not have civilian casualties in our […]

The Taliban said on Monday they had taken control of all of Afghanistan – including the Panjshir Valley, the historic Tajik bastion that neither the Soviets in the 1980s nor the Taliban in the 1990s were able to conquer. But resistance leader Ahmad Massoud – son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, known as the “lion of Panjshir” – […]

The National Resistance Front (NRF) leader has voiced his willingness for talks with the Taliban on an end to the fighting in Panjsher province. As the Taliban stormed into his stronghold on Sunday, Ahmad Massoud positively responded to a call from religious scholars for a negotiated end to the conflict. In a post on the Front’s Facebook page, he said: […]

The National Resistance Front spokesman has been killed in the fighting with the Taliban, say media reports. Fahim Dashti, who also worked as a journalist, was killed in fierce clashes with the Taliban fighters in Panjsher valley north of Kabul. Multiple sources in the National Resistance Front confirmed Dashti’s killing on Sunday to several Afghan and foreign news organisations. Gen […]

The Taliban movement has rejected a proposal for cessation of fighting in the embattled central province of Panjsher. The offer was made by National (NRF) Resistance Front leader Ahmad Massoud on Sunday, hours after a call from top religious scholars. Al Jazeera quoted a Taliban spokesman as saying: “We have nothing to speak about with Ahmad Massoud after he turned […]

The Pakistani prime minister says the international community has the responsibility to stand by the Afghans, support them economically and help rebuild the war-ravaged country. In separate telephone calls on Sunday, Imran Khan discussed the situation in Afghanistan with the crown princes of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi and the emir Qatar. Khan highlighted the importance of a peaceful and […]

The Taliban proclaimed on Monday the conquest of the province of Panjshir, the only one of the 34 regions that had not fallen into the hands of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA). “Panjshir has come under the full control of the Emirate… Some rebels were defeated and the rest fled,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said. This assertion, however, was […]

On Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that a new Afghan interim government will be announced in the next few days, after confirming that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has taken over Panjshir, the only province that had remained out of Taliban’s control. “The new administration might be in the form of a caretaker government. It is a suggestion, […]

The US and the EU should not buy Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s fake pro-Western posture (such as when he offered to run the Kabul airport, then fled) or his fake anti-radicalism (such as when he is courting the Afghan terrorists). Erdogan’s strategy, as a member of NATO, is clearly to bolster Russia’s and China’s plans for the future of […]

The last few hours of US presence in Afghanistan have been tumultuous, in tune with the 20-year war in the country which came to an end as Major Gen Chris Donahue, Commanding General of the US 82nd Airborne Division, became the last US soldier to exit Afghan soil. However, the botched US exit has given way to uncertainty in Afghanistan, […]