Taliban, opposition battle for Panjshir Valley, Pakistan spy chief flies to Kabul

(Reuters) – Taliban and opposition forces were fighting on Saturday for control of the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul, the last province in Afghanistan holding out against the Islamist group, according to reports.

Taliban sources said on Friday its fighters had taken the valley, although the resistance denied it had fallen.

The Taliban have so far issued no public declaration that they had taken the valley, which resisted their rule when they were last in power in Kabul from 1996 to 2001.

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, which groups opposition forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said Taliban forces reached the Darband heights on the border between Kapisa province and Panjshir but were pushed back.

“The defence of the stronghold of Afghanistan is unbreakable,” Front spokesman Fahim Dashty said in a tweet.

A Taliban source said fighting was continuing in Panjshir but the advance was slowed by landmines placed on the road to the capital Bazarak and the provincial governor’s compound.

“Demining and offensives are both going on at the same time,” the source said.

It was not immediately possible to get independent confirmation of events in Panjshir, which is walled off by mountains except for a narrow entrance and had held out against Soviet occupation as well as the previous Taliban government.

Celebratory gunfire resounded in Kabul on Friday as reports spread of the Taliban’s takeover of Panjshir, and news agencies said here at least 17 people were killed and 41 hurt in the firing.

Pakistan’s spy chief Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed flew into Kabul on Saturday, sources in both capitals said. It was not clear what his agenda was, but a senior official in Pakistan here had said earlier in the week that Hameed, who heads the powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, could help the Taliban reorganise the Afghan military.

Washington has accused Pakistan and the ISI of backing the Taliban in the group’s two-decade fight against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul, although Islamabad has denied the charges. After the Islamist group seized Kabul this month, analysts have said Pakistan’s role in Afghanistan will be much enhanced.

The Pakistani government has said that its influence over the movement has waned, particularly since the Taliban grew in confidence once Washington announced the date for the complete withdrawal of U.S. and other foreign troops.

GOVERNMENT NEXT WEEK

The Taliban source also said the announcement of a new government would be pushed back to the next week.

Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, reported by some Taliban sources to be in line to lead the new government, said in remarks on Qatar’s Al Jazeera channel that the new administration “will include all factions of the Afghan people.”

“We are doing our utmost efforts to improve their living conditions. The government will provide security, because it is necessary for economic development,” he said.

Meanwhile, there were some signs of normality creeping back in the Afghan capital.

Qatar’s ambassador to Afghanistan said a technical team was able to reopen Kabul airport to receive aid, according to Al Jazeera, which also cited its correspondent as saying domestic flights had restarted.

The airport has been closed since the United States completed operations on Aug. 30 to evacuate diplomats, foreigners and Afghans deemed at risk from the Taliban.

The Taliban’s main spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, also said one of the main foreign exchange dealers in Kabul had reopened.

Impoverished Afghanistan’s economy has been thrown into disarray by the takeover by the Taliban. Many banks are closed and cash is in short supply.

The United Nations has said it will convene an international aid conference here in Geneva on Sept. 13 to help avert what U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called a “looming humanitarian catastrophe”.

Without the aid that has sustained the country for years, the Taliban will find it hard to avert economic collapse.

Western powers say they are prepared to engage with the Taliban and send humanitarian aid, but that formal recognition of the government and broader economic assistance will depend on action – not just promises – to safeguard human rights.

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