Taliban Targets Panjshir Valley as Resistance Leaders Remain Defiant  

The Taliban are dispatching hundreds of fighters to the Panjshir Valley, 150 kilometers north of the Afghan capital, Kabul, to try to stamp out an emerging resistance movement led by the son of a warlord who defied them the last time they ruled Afghanistan 20 years ago.

The deployment comes hours after forces aligned with Ahmad Massoud’s National Resistance Front, comprising remnants of regular Afghan army units and special forces and local militia fighters, clashed with the Taliban in Andarab — a southern district in Baghlan province. Last week, in the first stirrings of serious resistance, anti-Taliban fighters secured three districts neighboring Andarab, all near the Panjshir Valley, Massoud’s redoubt.  The Taliban on Monday claimed to have recaptured the three districts.