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

The Taliban fought lethal battles with budding resistance forces in northern Afghanistan, as political negotiations on a broader government moved forward in Kabul and accessibility to the city’s U.S.-operate airport remained hard for 1000’s of Afghans striving to flee.

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

They include the fallen Afghan republic’s defense minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who statements to be Afghanistan’s legitimate chief immediately after President Ashraf Ghani abandoned his responsibilities and fled the country Aug. fifteen and Ahmad Massoud, a son of renowned Panjshiri commander Ahmad Shah Massoud.

Online video posted on social media showed casualties and battling between 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.

While the militias in Baghlan are allied with the forces in Panjshir, they acted independently in attacking the Taliban, reported Ali Nazary, head of foreign relations for the new Countrywide Resistance Entrance that is primarily based in Panjshir and involves some 1,000 Afghan army commandos who refused to surrender when the rest of the armed forces melted absent, as well as some helicopters.