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DPA
Kabul
A group of Taliban fighters has carried out an attack on Afghanistan’s north-eastern Panjshir province for the first time in 19 years, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
Panjshir was the home of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, an anti-Taliban resistance leader, and is considered one of the two safest provinces in the country.
Massoud was assassinated at the instigation of al-Qaeda and Taliban in a suicide bombing on September 9, 2001, just two days before the attacks in New York and Washington.
As Massoud’s supporters gathered in the capital Kabul to commemorate the 19th anniversary of his death, the Taliban attacked Panjshir province’s Abshar district on Tuesday morning, a local politician in the province said.
Local officials told dpa the militants might have come from neighbouring Nuristan or Laghman provinces.
The insurgents attempted to attack the district headquarters but faced resistance from locals, the provincial police spokesman said.
Twenty villagers were taken hostages by the Taliban but they were released later, according to police.
More than a dozen Taliban militants were besieged by local residents and government forces, compelling the Taliban to ultimately surrender, police said.
In a statement, the Taliban claimed to have captured checkpoints and taken seven government forces hostage during the fighting.
Of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, the Taliban controls or contests parts of 32, including the capital Kabul. They do not control any part of Bamyan and Panjshir provinces.
Panjshir, which means “Five Lions,” is a mountainous valley that served as an important staging area for anti-Taliban fighters as US-led international forces toppled the Taliban’s regime in late 2001.
It is the only province the Taliban has never been able to influence - even when they were ruling Afghanistan in 1990s - and has been stable since the Taliban were ousted from power.
It’s not just the Taliban. The Soviets also couldn’t get a foothold because the well-known guerilla commander Massoud successfully resisted against both groups, earning the nickname “Lion of Panjshir” among his followers and “National Hero” by the order of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
The clashes come as the Taliban and Afghan government peace negotiators are set to hold talks in the Qatari city of Doha soon, after the two sides nearly completed a prisoner exchange brokered under a peace agreement between the United States and Taliban in February.
The beginning of the peace talks would be historic, as the Taliban for the past 19 years have repeatedly refused any talks with the Afghan government, calling it a Western “puppet.”
Kabul
A group of Taliban fighters has carried out an attack on Afghanistan’s north-eastern Panjshir province for the first time in 19 years, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
Panjshir was the home of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, an anti-Taliban resistance leader, and is considered one of the two safest provinces in the country.
Massoud was assassinated at the instigation of al-Qaeda and Taliban in a suicide bombing on September 9, 2001, just two days before the attacks in New York and Washington.
As Massoud’s supporters gathered in the capital Kabul to commemorate the 19th anniversary of his death, the Taliban attacked Panjshir province’s Abshar district on Tuesday morning, a local politician in the province said.
Local officials told dpa the militants might have come from neighbouring Nuristan or Laghman provinces.
The insurgents attempted to attack the district headquarters but faced resistance from locals, the provincial police spokesman said.
Twenty villagers were taken hostages by the Taliban but they were released later, according to police.
More than a dozen Taliban militants were besieged by local residents and government forces, compelling the Taliban to ultimately surrender, police said.
In a statement, the Taliban claimed to have captured checkpoints and taken seven government forces hostage during the fighting.
Of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, the Taliban controls or contests parts of 32, including the capital Kabul. They do not control any part of Bamyan and Panjshir provinces.
Panjshir, which means “Five Lions,” is a mountainous valley that served as an important staging area for anti-Taliban fighters as US-led international forces toppled the Taliban’s regime in late 2001.
It is the only province the Taliban has never been able to influence - even when they were ruling Afghanistan in 1990s - and has been stable since the Taliban were ousted from power.
It’s not just the Taliban. The Soviets also couldn’t get a foothold because the well-known guerilla commander Massoud successfully resisted against both groups, earning the nickname “Lion of Panjshir” among his followers and “National Hero” by the order of former Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
The clashes come as the Taliban and Afghan government peace negotiators are set to hold talks in the Qatari city of Doha soon, after the two sides nearly completed a prisoner exchange brokered under a peace agreement between the United States and Taliban in February.
The beginning of the peace talks would be historic, as the Taliban for the past 19 years have repeatedly refused any talks with the Afghan government, calling it a Western “puppet.”
