Anti-Taliban Anti-Taliban forces seize three districts in northern Afghanistan: Report
Afghan forces, comprising remnants of ANSF and militia groups, still holding out Taliban in northern Afghanistan, have claimed to have seized three districts close to the Panjshir valley.
The remaining soldiers of Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and the militia groups are gathering in the Panjshir valley, said a Reuters report, as Defence Minister General Bismillah Mohammadi vows to resist the Taliban.
Earlier, Russia had also said that anti-Taliban forces are gathering in the Panjshir Valley, which is still out of Taliban's control.
Reuters reported that it was still not clear which forces were not involved in the campaign but it is a scattered reflection of the opposition to the Taliban who seized power in Afghanistan at a lightning speed.
Local television station Tolo News quoted a local police commander who said Bano district in Baghlan had been taken under control by local militia forces and said there had been heavy casualties, the report added.
Former Vice President Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Massoud, son of former anti-Soviet Mujahideen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, have pledged to fight the Taliban from Panjshir, which defeated both Soviet forces and the Taliban in the 1980s and 1990s.
More than 6,000 fighters, made up of remnants of army and Special Forces units as well as local militia groups, have gathered in the valley, Reuters reported citing people close to Masoud.
Their military equipment include some helicopters and military vehicles and have repaired some of the armoured vehicles left behind by the Soviets, the report stated.
The voices against the Taliban militants in the eastern cities and the capital Kabul, where people held demonstrations and raised Afghanistan's national flag, have no connection with the armed resistance massing in the northern region, said the report, adding that it underscores the problems Taliban will have to face in consolidating the ground they have covered by violence to decimate a democratically elected civilian government.
However, the western forces have expressed doubt over the ability of the Afghan forces and militias to topple the Taliban as there is no outside support and the Soviet equipment left in Panjshir need complete overhaul.
Further, Taliban have so far not tried to enter the Panjshir valley and it still remains to be seen if the Afghan forces can hold their ground and repel Taliban if the militant group makes a full-scale assault to capture the remaining territories.
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