The latest attacks continue to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan’s National Resistance Front reportedly fought Taliban forces in the Panjshir Valley on Saturday, about 50 kilometers northeast of Kabul.
Panjshir is the last province in Afghanistan to face the Islamist group. The resistance has brought together thousands of regional militia fighters and remnants of former government forces to defend the region, Reuters reported.
The valley resisted for a decade against the occupation of the Soviet Union in the 1980s and also the first Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001.
On Friday, rumors spread that the Taliban had taken the valley, but militia forces denied they had fallen.
Former Afghan vice president Amrullah Saleh, one of the leaders of opposition forces, told the BBC that he is in the Panjshir valley and that his side has not given up.
“There is no doubt that we are in a difficult situation. We are under the invasion of the Taliban, “he said in a video clip from Friday posted to Twitter by BBC World journalist Yalda Hakim. “We have kept the ground, we have resisted.
“Resistance will not bow to terrorism,” Saleh said.
The National Resistance Front said Taliban forces reached the Panjshir border but were retreated.
A spokesman for the resistance tweeted that the Taliban were “crushed by National Resistance forces and fled.”
“They could not advance with all their strength and their casualties are high,” said front spokesman Fahim Dashti. He said in a tweet Saturday. “The defense of Afghanistan’s stronghold is unwavering,” he said in another.
A Taliban source told Reuters that fighting continued in Panjshir, with its advance halted by landmines. “Both deminers and offensives are happening at the same time,” the source said.
It was not possible to immediately obtain an independent confirmation of the events in Panjshir, the media noted. The region is walled by mountains with only a narrow entrance.
So far, the Taliban have not publicly claimed to have taken the valley, where resistance fighters are believed to have amassed large arms depots, The Guardian reported.