The anti-Italiban resistance announced on Friday that it was involved in “heavy” fighting against Islamist fighters besieging the Panchir valley (East), the only center of armed opposition to the new Afghan regime.

“There is heavy fighting in Panchir,” said Ali Maisam Nazary, a spokesman for the National Resistance Front (FNR), which includes anti-Italian militias and former members of the Afghan forces.

“Massoud is busy defending the valley,” he added, referring to Ahmad Massoud, son of Commander Ahmed Shah Massoud, a figure of resistance to the Soviets and the Taliban assassinated on September 9, 2001 by Al-Qaeda.

The FNR initially reported significant but unstated losses inflicted on the Taliban, which it claims to push back. Pro-Taliban social media accounts claim that 31 Panchiri fighters have been killed.

On Wednesday, the Italian NGO Emergency said on Twitter that it had received in its Kabul hospital “five patients injured and four dead (…) as a result of the fighting in Gulbahar”, at the gates of the Panchir valley.

“Taliban forces gathered around the entrance to the valley but were ambushed and suffered losses,” recently wrote Martine van Bijlert, co-director of the Afghan Analyst Network.

“While the two sides seemed mainly to seek blows to strengthen their position in the negotiations, without starting an all-out battle, the Taliban are now summoning reinforcements from other provinces, according to the latest returns” from the area, he said. -she adds.

The FNR, which said it hoped to dialogue with the Taliban, promised to defend the valley already surrounded by hundreds of fighters from the Islamist movement. But these talks failed, according to the Taliban, who called on the resistance to surrender without a fight.

“The Taliban have offered to allocate two seats to the FNR in the government they want to create, while we demand a better future for Afghanistan,” Ahmad Massoud said Wednesday. “We did not even consider” their offer, he continued, believing that the Taliban had “chosen the path of war”.

A long-standing anti-Italiban stronghold, the Panchir is a remote and difficult-to-access valley in the heart of the Hindu Kush Mountains, the southern end of which is about 80 kilometers north of the capital Kabul.

Amrullah Saleh, vice-president of the deposed government, extremely hostile to the Taliban, notably took refuge there.

Source: Seychelles News Agency