Taliban Say They Have Retaken 3 Northern Districts Seized By Afghan Militias

Afghanistan: Earlier, the districts of Bano, Deh Saleh, Pul e-Hesar in Baghlan province were taken by local militia groups on August 15.

Taliban forces have recaptured three districts in northern Afghanistan that fell to local militia groups last week, a spokesman said on Monday. The districts of Bano, Deh Saleh, Pul e-Hesar in Baghlan province were taken by local militia groups in one of the first signs of armed resistance to the Taliban since their seizure of the capital Kabul on Aug. 15. By Monday, Taliban forces had cleared the districts and were established in Badakhshan, Takhar and Andarab near the Panjshir valley, according to the Twitter account of spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. Forces loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the anti-Soviet mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, have established themselves in the Panjshir valley, a mountainous area northwest of Kabul which resisted the Taliban before 2001.