Doha, Qatar – The Taliban claimed on Monday that they had taken full control of Afghanistan. The group said its forces had seized the Panjshir Valley and, with it, the last province in the country where resistance forces remained and fought the capture of Islamic extremists.
There were competing claims about the situation in Panjshir, north of the capital Kabul, with some members of the resistance refusing to leave, but images of the rugged mountainous region suggested the fight was over and the Taliban had won.
Despite claims by the competition, it was clear that the Taliban were consolidating their control over the country and their latest apparent victory came amid growing concern over the fate of Americans and Afghans who have been unable to leave.
The relatively small force of the National Resistance Front, led by Commander Ahmad Massoud, had resisted the Taliban for weeks in the rugged mountains of the Panjshir Valley.
It was unclear whether Massoud was still in the province or even Afghanistan, but in an audio message recorded on Monday he called on all Afghans inside and outside his country “to begin a national uprising for dignity, the freedom and prosperity of our country “.
After surrounding the region where Massoud and his ally, former Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh, were entrenched, the Taliban intensified the battle over the weekend. On Monday, the group had raised its flag with an apparent sign of victory.
When Charlie D’Agata, a CBS News foreign correspondent, interviewed Massoud in May, before the Taliban took control, he promised that he and his forces would fight the Taliban to death.
“They are ready,” he said of his militia. “If the situation is heading for war, we will announce it and be prepared … I will fight for it and I am willing to give my life for it.”
Neither Massoud nor Saleh had posted anything on their social media since Monday afternoon about the intense fighting over the weekend. Massoud’s audio message, distributed through the media, was the only clue they hoped to keep fighting the Taliban.
Planes trapped in Mazar-i-Sharif
When the Taliban consolidated their control, the representative of the Republican Foreign Affairs Committee, representative Michael McCaul he accused the group of holding the Americans hostage.
“Six planes with U.S. citizens, as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban are holding them hostage to the demands right now,” McCaul told Fox News on Sunday, adding that the State Department United “has authorized these flights, and the Taliban will not let them out of the airport.”
Satellite image © 2021 Maxar Technologies
Satellite photographs of Mazar-i-Sharif Airport in northern Kabul show six passenger planes on the runway. U.S. government officials and a nonprofit group told CBS News on Sunday that there were at least 19 U.S. citizens and two green card holders among the roughly 1,000 people trying to get on those planes.
Asked about the delay in taking the planes off the ground, the Taliban would only tell CBS News that “they are watching.”
With no U.S. presence in Afghanistan after the military withdrawal, the fate of all those who wished to leave, along with the country itself, was entirely in the hands of the Taliban.
According to D’Agata, the Taliban have not yet announced their new government for the country. Group leaders have been saying for days that an announcement is imminent.
While it is unclear exactly what the new Taliban regime will look like, the group has made it clear that the elections “are not in sight at the moment”.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to arrive in Doha (Qatar) later Monday. The country has been instrumental in the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan and maintains a good working relationship with the Taliban.