The Taliban has taken full management of Panjshir province, the final space in Afghanistan held by resistance forces, says the group’s spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid.
Photos on social media on Monday confirmed Taliban members standing in entrance of the gate of the Panjshir provincial governor’s compound.
There was no rapid phrase from Ahmad Massoud, the chief of the opposition group resisting Taliban forces.
Earlier on Monday, the final anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan acknowledged struggling appreciable battlefield losses and referred to as for a ceasefire, as a prime United States diplomat flew to Qatar to attempt to deal with the chaotic aftermath of the US withdrawal.
The Nationwide Resistance Entrance (NRF) proposed in an announcement “that the Taliban cease its army operations in Panjshir … and withdraw its forces”.
“In return, we are going to direct our forces to chorus from army motion,” mentioned the assertion, in line with a report by the AFP information company.
The NRF consists of native fighters loyal to Massoud, the son of the well-known anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, in addition to remnants of the Afghan army that retreated to the Panjshir Valley.
The group mentioned individually in a tweet on Sunday that spokesman Fahim Dashty, a well known Afghan journalist, and Common Abdul Wudod Zara had been killed within the newest combating.
The NRF has promised to battle the Taliban but in addition mentioned it was prepared to barter with the group. However preliminary contact didn’t result in a breakthrough.
The Panjshir Valley is famed for being the positioning of resistance to Soviet forces within the Nineteen Eighties and the Taliban within the late Nineteen Nineties, however observers have mentioned the NRF is struggling.
Invoice Roggio, the managing editor of the US-based Lengthy Conflict Journal, on Sunday mentioned whereas there was nonetheless a “fog of struggle”, with unconfirmed experiences the Taliban had captured a number of districts, “it appears unhealthy”.
Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who’s holed out in Panjshir alongside Ahmad Massoud, has warned of a humanitarian disaster, with 1000’s “displaced by the Taliban onslaught”.
The Taliban is but to finalise their new authorities after rolling into Kabul three weeks in the past.
Afghanistan’s new rulers have pledged to be extra “inclusive” than throughout their first stint in energy, which additionally got here after years of battle, first the Soviet invasion of 1979, after which a bloody civil struggle.
They’ve promised a authorities that represents Afghanistan’s advanced ethnic make-up.
Girls’s freedoms in Afghanistan had been sharply curtailed underneath the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule.
This time, girls shall be allowed to attend college so long as courses are segregated by intercourse or at the least divided by a curtain, the Taliban’s schooling authority mentioned in a prolonged doc issued on Sunday.
However feminine college students should additionally put on an lengthy gown and face veil, versus the much more conservative burqa necessary underneath the earlier Taliban rule.
Because the Taliban involves grips with their transition from armed rebellion to authorities, it’s going through a number of challenges, together with humanitarian wants for which worldwide help is crucial.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths has arrived in Kabul for a number of days of conferences with the Taliban management, which has promised to assist.
“The authorities pledged that the security and safety of humanitarian workers, and humanitarian entry to individuals in want, shall be assured and that humanitarian employees – women and men – shall be assured freedom of motion,” an announcement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric mentioned.
The Taliban spokesman tweeted that the group’s delegation assured the UN of cooperation.
Blinken journey to Qatar, Germany
The worldwide group is coming to phrases with the brand new Taliban regime with a flurry of diplomacy.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due on Monday in Qatar, a key participant within the Afghan saga, although he’s not anticipated to satisfy with the Taliban representatives.
Qatar, a big US army base, has been the gateway for 55,000 individuals airlifted out of Afghanistan, practically half the overall evacuated by US-led forces after the Taliban takeover.
Blinken can even communicate to the Qataris about efforts alongside Turkey to reopen Kabul’s airport, which is important for flying in badly wanted humanitarian help and evacuating remaining Afghans.
Blinken will then head on Wednesday to the US airbase in Ramstein, Germany, a short lived dwelling for 1000’s of Afghans transferring to the USA, from which he’ll maintain a digital 20-nation ministerial assembly on the disaster alongside German International Minister Heiko Maas.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday referred to as for dialogue with the Taliban.
“We merely have to speak to the Taliban about how we will get individuals who have labored for Germany in another country and convey them to security,” she advised reporters.