Afghanistan: Taliban apparently captured Pandziro

Punjir Province was the last area in Afghanistan still occupied by resistance fighters. The radical Islamic Taliban have now announced that they have taken control of the province.

The radical Islamic Taliban also claimed to have captured the last province occupied by the Afghan National Resistance Front (NRF). Taliban spokesman Sabiullah Mujahid said Pandjir had been captured. Witnesses in the area also confirmed to AP news agency that thousands of Taliban fighters had captured eight districts of Punjir, north of Kabul, that night.

The Italian aid organization Emergency, which runs a clinic in the village of Anaba, about a kilometer from the provincial capital Bazarak, confirmed on Twitter on Saturday that the Taliban had taken over.

Victory on Punjir will be a great success for Taliban

The NRF said he was present in a “strategic position”. “The fight against the Taliban and their allies will continue,” the group said on Twitter. NRF spokesman Faheem Dashti was killed in the fighting that night, as confirmed by multiple sources in the Resistance Front. Another NRF spokesperson shared a tweet which claimed that the Taliban’s claim about the capture of Punjir was false. He himself wrote that the fighting would continue until the attackers were removed from the country.

The Afghan broadcaster “Tolo News” reported that the leader of the NRF, Ahmed Masood, had agreed to hold talks with the Taliban.

A Taliban spokesman shared a photo purportedly showing Taliban fighters outside the governor’s seat in the provincial capital, Basarq. The victory of Pandjir would be a great success for the Islamists. In the 1990s, the Pandjir Valley was already a stronghold of resistance against the Taliban and has never been under their control.

NRF leader’s father also fought against Taliban

The Panjir question was originally intended to be resolved through dialogue. However, last week, fighting broke out when, according to Dashti, the Taliban attacked posts at the entrance to the valley. Since then the fighting intensified every day.

The resistance front includes former members of the government, remnants of Afghan Army Special Forces, and militias surrounding Masood, whose father, Ahmed Shah Masood, fought against the Taliban in the Punjir Valley in the 1990s.

Taliban guarantees security for aid workers

According to the United Nations, the Taliban have pledged to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers in Afghanistan. A UN spokesman said Islamists had promised in talks that aid workers would be able to move freely and safely in the country.

The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffith, was in Kabul yesterday for talks with the Taliban leadership. Among other things, he met Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the co-founder of the Taliban. Griffiths then said that the international community felt an obligation to provide “fair and independent humanitarian assistance” to Afghanistan.

Development Minister wants to continue to help

Development Minister Gerd Müller promised further aid to Afghanistan at the “Rhenish Post” and warned of the coming winter: “We must now try to send aid by all means and continue to try to get out of the country by all means.” should be kept. Those who are in danger. ”

He had discussed with the President of the World Health Organization WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, “We support the planned airlift of the WHO to supply medicines and vaccines to hospitals”.

At the end of the week, the foreign ministers of EU countries agreed on five conditions for limited cooperation with the Taliban. The “operational engagement” with the new rulers is to be gradually increased when the Taliban form a government in the country with the participation of other political forces and people need security to leave the country.