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  1. #1
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    The battle to liberate Afganistan has begun.

    Afghanistan: Panjshir forces claim hundreds of Taliban captured


    Taliban reportedly meets stiff resistance after pushing deep into Afghanistan’s holdout Panjshir Valley.

    Taliban and opposition forces continue to battle to control the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul with resistance fighters saying they captured hundreds of Taliban troops.

    The National Resistance Front (NRF) of Afghanistan, grouping forces loyal to local leader Ahmad Massoud, said on Sunday it surrounded “thousands of terrorists” in Khawak Pass and the Taliban abandoned vehicles and equipment in the Dashte Rewak area.

    NRF spokesman Fahim Dashti added “heavy clashes” were going on.

    “Sources within the valley are saying the NRF are claiming to have captured about 1,500 Taliban. Apparently, these fighters were surrounded,” said Stratford.

    Dashti wrote on Twitter that Paryan district had been completely emptied of Taliban fighters.

    Nearly 1,000 Taliban fighters were either killed, wounded, or taken captive after the exit route behind them was closed off, Dashti said. The information could not be verified independently.

    Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi said on Twitter on Sunday its forces seized five of the province’s seven districts. Karimi said Khinj and Unabah districts had been taken, he said.

    “The Mujahideen [Taliban fighters] are advancing toward the centre [of the province],” he wrote.


    Last holdout

    Panjshir is the last Afghan province holding out against the armed group that swept to power last month.

    Both sides claimed to have the upper hand in Panjshir but neither could produce conclusive evidence to prove it. The Taliban was unable to control the valley when it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

    US General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscored the tenuous situation.

    “My military estimate is, is that the conditions are likely to develop of a civil war. I don’t know if the Taliban is going to be able to consolidate power and establish governance,” Milley said.

    If the Taliban cannot quash resistance, it will “in turn lead to a reconstitution of al-Qaeda or a growth of ISIS or other myriad of terrorist groups” over the next three years, said Milley.

    Emergency, an Italian medical aid organisation, said Taliban forces had pushed further into the Panjshir Valley on Friday night, reaching the village of Anabah where the group has medical facilities.

    ‘Fog of war’

    Bill Roggio, managing editor of the US-based Long War Journal, said on Sunday there was still a “fog of war” with unconfirmed reports. Both sides claim to have inflicted heavy losses on each other.

    “The Taliban army has been hardened with 20 years of war and make no mistake, the Taliban trained an army,” Roggio tweeted, adding “the odds were long” for the Panjshir resistance.

    “The Taliban army was injected with a massive amount of weapons and munitions after the US withdrawal and collapse of the ANA [Afghan National Army],” he added.

    Ali Maisam Nazary – who is not in Panjshir but remains a spokesman for the resistance – said the resistance force “will never fail”.

    But former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who is holed out in Panjshir alongside Massoud – the son of legendary anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud – warned of a grim situation.
    In a statement, Saleh spoke of a “large-scale humanitarian crisis” with thousands “displaced by the Taliban onslaught”.

    Pro-Taliban social media have boasted of capturing swaths of the valley, but Nick Waters from the investigative website Bellingcat said the posts did not include verifiable photographs to back up the claims.

    “It will be quite easy to verify a video showing Taliban within the Panjshir valley,” Waters said.

    The Panjshir Valley, surrounded by jagged snow-capped peaks, offers a natural defensive advantage, with fighters melting away in the face of advancing forces, then launching ambushes firing from the high tops down into the valley.

    #Panjshir


    Afghanistan: Panjshir forces claim hundreds of Taliban captured | Taliban News | Al Jazeera
    Last edited by bsnub; 05-09-2021 at 08:46 PM.

  2. #2
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    Will this be another liberation of Iraq? I rather doubt it actually. I am no friend of the Taliban, but they are now the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I am no friend of the Taliban, but they are now the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
    Says who? Was there an election?

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    Says who? Was there an election?
    Their opponents ....elected to flee and surrender.

    No, the population won't be asked

  5. #5
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    Afghan update. Heavy fighting in Panjshir Some 600- 1000 Taliban killed, 120 captured.Pak 1offr 3 jco and 17 OR killed17 Wounded. evacuated to Peshawar by Mi-17 Helicopter. GoC 11 corps has ordered est of forward treatment centre at Kabul. Peshawar MH cleared to recieve more cas
    https://twitter.com/GeneralBakshi/st...81399638085638

  6. #6
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    Well, Juan Guiado (the killer pimp) appears to be out of a job these days. Perhaps the USA should appoint him 'Dictator for Hire' and recognise him instead?


  7. #7

  8. #8
    Thailand Expat harrybarracuda's Avatar
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    Correct title: "Last vestiges of opposition to Taliban under attack".

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Correct title: "Last vestiges of opposition to Taliban under attack".
    Oliver North was on Hannity last week explaining all of this, even asking for help from Biden, but unfortunately they don't have 33 blackhawks or the rest.






  10. #10
    Thailand Expat David48atTD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by harrybarracuda View Post
    Correct title: "Last vestiges of opposition to Taliban under attack".
    Yes, I was surprised by the difference between the headline of the OP and it's comment.

    The Taliban didn't capture Afghanistan’s holdout Panjshir Valley last time and a lot of that Military hardware is useless in the mountainous terrain which forms that valley.

  11. #11
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    Panjshir resistance leader says ready for talks with Taliban

    Ahmad Massoud, head of NRF, says he welcomes proposals for a negotiated settlement to end fighting in Panjshir Valley.



    The battle to liberate Afganistan has begun.-2019-09-06t115627z_358267093_rc1e894091a0_rtrmadp_3_afghanistan-massoud-jpg
    'The NRF is ready to stop fighting on condition that Taliban also stop their attacks and military movements on Panjshir and Andarab,'
    Ahmad Massoud wrote on Facebook [File: Mohammad Ismail/REUTERS]


    Key points:
    • Ahmad Massoud says the NRF is willing to talk with the Taliban and put an immediate end to fighting
    • Afghan media outlets report that religious scholars called on the Taliban to accept a negotiated settlement
    • The Taliban say they have fought their way into Panjshir's provincial capital Bazarak


    Panjshir resistance leader says ready for talks with Taliban | Taliban News | Al Jazeera
    Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago ...


  12. #12
    last farang standing
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    It will be interesting to see how many maintenance techs they have for those helicopters, let alone spare parts. They certainly have no money to pay for them. Hopefully the west has learnt it cannot fix other peoples ills They should be left to their own devices and the west should stick to fixing the west.

  13. #13
    On a walkabout Loy Toy's Avatar
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    ^ Yup.

  14. #14
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    This Ahmad Massoud is an interesting chappie. Just a taster-


    Early life and education

    Ahmad Massoud was born in 1989.[3] He is the only son and the oldest of Ahmad Shah Massoud's six children.[4]

    After finishing his secondary school education in Iran, Massoud spent a year on a military course at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.[5] In 2012, he commenced an undergraduate degree in War Studies at King's College London, where he obtained his bachelor's degree in 2015. He obtained his master's degree in International Politics from City, University of London in 2016.[6][7][8] His undergraduate and postgraduate dissertation topics were the Taliban.[9]

    Ahmad Massoud - Wikipedia


    As was his daddy-

    Ahmad Shah Massoud - Wikipedia

  15. #15
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    The lion of panjshir would be proud of his son.

  16. #16
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    I am no friend of the Taliban, but they are now the legitimate government of Afghanistan.
    Define legitimate . . . they ain't it. They are in power in most of the country, but that doesn't make them legitimate. They simply are the government.

  17. #17
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    Define legitimate
    Fair question. Was the last one legitimate?

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Was the last one legitimate?
    At least they had an election.

  19. #19
    Thailand Expat OhOh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by bsnub View Post
    an election.
    Well there we are then.

    They would have utilised the electronic, foolproof, election machines, unfortunately "somebody" smashed them up.

    No problem.

    I suspect the Taliban have, a duly appointed "Electoral College", one from each province, on standby, to anoint the new leader.

    Maybe HM Elizabeth Queen II, and all the Dominions, can send them a governor-general to rule?

    Last edited by OhOh; 06-09-2021 at 02:14 PM.
    A tray full of GOLD is not worth a moment in time.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Fair question. Was the last one legitimate?
    Yes - add to that women voted . . . the problem with your stance is that you you have OhWoe as your hangers-on



    Quote Originally Posted by OhOh View Post
    They would have utilised the election machines, unfortunately "somebody" smashed them up.

    I suspect the Taliban have a, duly appointed "Electoral College", on standby to anoint the new leader.
    You just know that you're talking shit, right? Does t bother you so that women voted?

  21. #21
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    Sorry, but no. It only ever controlled a relatively small part of the country. Even the American occupying forces had to deal with the Taliban.

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Sorry, but no. It only ever controlled a relatively small part of the country.
    Wrong. The majority of the population was under Afghan government control, as were all the provincial capitals. The rural areas that were under Taliban control before the American withdrawal are sparsely populated.

    The fact is, the prior government was a democracy, regardless of what you think. You of all people are the least qualified to determine the integrity of an election, and you have proven that many times on this forum with your knee-jerk support of elections when it suits your ideological leanings.

  23. #23
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    Makes you wonder why the whole country collapsed like a pack of cards then, and the Capitol was taken with nary a shot being fired.
    This after a trillion dollars or more being thrown by the US in 'nation building'. The results speak for themselves.
    And yes, the occupying forces did have to deal with the Taliban- extensively. The Karzai gov't never ruled the country.
    But it doesn't really matter if you recognise Guaido the killer pimp or anyone else now as the 'rightful' ruler of Afghanistan.
    The parties that matter recognise the Taliban, and are dealing with them accordingly.

  24. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    Makes you wonder why the whole country collapsed like a pack of cards then
    Money had a lot to do with it, and the US cut off the money bags. But your response still does not disprove that there was a democratically elected government in place before the US withdrawal.

    Quote Originally Posted by sabang View Post
    The Karzai gov't never ruled the country.
    Controlling all the major population centers, the boarders, and major transit points is controlling the country no matter what you want to say. It doesn't matter one bit how fast it all collapsed with the withdrawal of American troops.

  25. #25
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    Best thing you ever did there was get out. That's all. Loadsa people been telling you that for years. It's somebody elses problem now.

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