Afghan resistance under assault from ‘very well armed’ Taliban with US weapons
Afghan resistance fighters complained that the US effectively armed the Taliban by leaving so many weapons behind.
Now under huge military pressure in the one region not controlled by the Taliban, one analyst said the terrorist group has a huge boost over the National Resistance Front (NRF).
Defence expert Nishank Motwani told MailOnline the Taliban has a "significant advantage".
He said: "They are very well armed, and they have the psychological factor in their favour in that they precipitated the fall of the government so quickly.
"The Taliban seized an enormous arsenal of weapons and military kit that the now departed US provided to the defeated Afghan army, as well as the support of prisoners they freed from jails.
"The Taliban also have shock troops, including the use of suicide tactics."
The Panjshir Valley around 50 miles north of Kabul is the last region not controlled by the Taliban.
It's an extraordinary turnaround for the extremist group with took Kabul on August 15.
But the NRF does have military stockpiles of its own, allowing them to hold their own against the Islamist group.
Most NRF fighters are Tajik militia troops, ex-Taliban fighters and former Afghanistan security forces soldiers.
The small region they have stayed in control of has a population of around 150,000.
Yet the Taliban have the valley surrounded and have boasted the NRF have no way out.
NRF leader Ahmad Massoud revealed on Wednesday he rejected a deal to have a small representation in the Taliban government.
He said: "The Taliban have chosen the path of war.
"[We] are ready to defeat them if they dare to invade."
The Panjshir has special symbolic value within Afghanistan as its Tajik population has long resisted invasion by the country's foreign occupiers.
Motwani explained: "It gives hope to those Afghans who have lost almost everything in a blink of an eye.
"It is somewhere where people can go outside Taliban rule."
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