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An old man in the Panjshir Valley sadly describes the last stand resistance fighters made against the Taliban's relentless sweep of Afghanistan: "There were too many of them." Leaning against the door of a closed shop in the village of Khenj, Abdul Wajeed said the group's forces massed in September at the mouth of the valley, north of the capital Kabul. The sight of dozens of armoured Taliban vehicles powering through the narrow gorge is burned into his memory. "There was nothing more we could do," he said. For three days his village and the National Resistance Forces (NRF) --...

The Taliban completed its military conquest of Afghanistan and took control of the mountainous province of Panjshir after seven days of heavy fighting. The fall of Panjshir puts the Taliban in full control of the country and eliminates the final vestige of organized resistance to its rule. The Taliban began its assault on Panjshir on Aug. 30, the day the U.S. military withdrew its last forces from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. The Taliban seized control of the Afghan capital of Kabul and 32 of the country’s 34 provinces on Aug. 16 after a three and a half month...

The Taliban terrorist group unleashed a barrage of aerial gunfire in and around Kabul on Friday after the group reportedly gained ground in Panjshir province, the last region in Afghanistan that still remains under the control of anti-Taliban militants. At least 17 people were killed and 41 injured, including children, local Afghan news outlets reported. The Taliban fired the celebratory gunfire as news broke that the resistance in Panjshir was defeated. “We are in control of entire Afghanistan. The troublemakers have been defeated and Panjshir is now under our command,” news agency Reuters quoted one Taliban leader as saying.

HUNDREDS of fighters are reported to have died in bloody battles between the "Lion of Panjshir" resistance fighters and the Taliban as the terrorists attacked last free stronghold in Afghanistan. Heavy fighting has been reported around the Panjshir Valley - an area just 80 miles north of Kabul that is regarded as an impenetrable natural fortress. Casualty numbers remain uncertain on both sides - but it has been reported that the death toll is now in the hundreds as the bloodshed continues. Resistance forces - officially titled the National Resistance Front (NRF) - have vowed to never surrender and fight...

Amrullah Saleh, 48, is the former vice president of Afghanistan, who escaped Kabul as the Taliban advanced to join Ahmad Massoud and the National Resistance Front in the Panjshir Valley. The remote, 70 mile long valley, bordered by high mountains, is a geographical stronghold and the last province in Afghanistan to hold out against the Taliban. After peace negotiations failed, battle has now been joined with each side claiming territorial gains and heavy casualties in the past 48 hours. In a courageous and moving dispatch from the frontline, Saleh - whose leader, President Ashraf Ghani, fled Kabul for the UAE...

Al-Qaeda joined the Taliban in the group’s offensive on the Panjshir valley on Thursday, Ahmad Massoud’s forces say, according to Al Arabiya sources. Both sides have suffered casualties during fighting in recent days as the hardline group that has seized most of the country attempts to take the last pocket of resistance to its rule. Militiamen and remnants of the previous Afghan government gathered in the Panjshir valley after the fall of Kabul on August 15. The mountainous region is home to Ahmad Massoud, son of commander Ahmad Shah Massoud – a significant figure in resisting the 1979-89 soviet occupation....

ISLAMABAD - Heavy fighting has started between Taliban fighters and anti-Taliban resistance forces based in the Panjshir valley after talks between the two sides failed to resolve their differences. A resistance spokesman claims a Taliban offensive was repulsed with the Taliban suffering heavy losses. The resistance is led by Ahmad Masood, son of well-known anti-Taliban resistance leader from the 1990s, Ahmad Shah Masood. The elder Masood, who led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, was killed by al-Qaida militants posing as journalists just before the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. After the fall of Kabul last month,...

Aug 31 (Reuters) - Taliban forces clashed with militia fighters in the Panjshir valley north of the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday night, losing eight killed, a representative of the main anti-Taliban opposition group said. Since the fall of Kabul on Aug. 15, the Panjshir has been the only province to hold out against the Taliban, although there has also been fighting in neighbouring Baghlan province,,,

It’s only a matter of when the attack comes. And when it does it could be the greatest battle, and possibly the bloodiest, that Afghanistan has ever seen. You see, thirty-three of Afghanistan’s thirty-four provinces fell to the Taliban over the span of two weeks in early August. But one region, has not. The sole area that has resisted Taliban encroachment has been the province of Panjshir, located in a valley at the foot of the Hindu Kush mountains. The valley’s name translates to “five lions,” although other translations claim its name may refer to five mountain peaks located down...

The Taliban is sending fighters to Panjshir, an anti-Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan, as the insurgent group works to tighten its grip on the country and seize the last remaining province. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, announced in a statement on Monday that resistance forces are "surrounded," according to The Washington Post. He said the fighters were "at the gate of Panjshir." Mujahid added that the insurgent group would prefer to bypass future fighting and instead "resolve the issue peacefully through negotiations," the Post reported. A Taliban fighter, however, told the Post that the militant group decided to...

The shooting near the military side of the airport came as the Taliban sent fighters to the north of the capital to eliminate pockets of armed resistance to their lightning takeover earlier this month. The Taliban said they retook three districts that fell the day before and had surrounded Panjshir... ....Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group's forces have surrounded nearby Panjshir, the only one of Afghanistan's 34 provinces yet to fall to the militants.

Ahmad Massoud, the son of the 'lion of Panjshir' has been backed by Afghanistan’s top spy and ousted Vice President Amrullah Saleh, who has a network of spies inside Kabul An Afghan educated in Britain is leading the fightback in his home country, which has already seen between 60 to 100 Taliban killed. Ahmad Massoud, son of a legendary mujahideen commander, is heading up the heavily-armed uprising.... ...A source told us: “Over the past three days, remnants of the Afghan National Defence and Security Force made their way to Panjshir. "They are bolstering, joining and supporting Massoud’s alliance.... ...Massoud’s father...

Diplomats Visit Panjshir Reconstruction Team The Panjshir team is the first of its kind -- a joint effort between Combined Joint Task Force-76 and the U.S. Embassy. By U.S. Army Maj. T.G. Taylor 20th Public Affairs Detachment BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Feb. 2, 2006 — Diplomats from around the world visited the new Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team in Panjshir Province on Jan. 21 to view the progress of the reconstruction efforts. "This was an excellent opportunity to see how [the team] worked on the ground. The visit was a good opportunity to see this new type of integration of military...

War brutalizes man, every afghan bears living testimony to this. If the landscape of Afghanistan bears the craters of the endless war, the political and military leadership in Afghanistan also carries war's indelible scars. It is important never to lose sight of this. Ahmed Shah Mas'ud was born to an army family in 1953 in the Panjshir Valley north of the Afghan capital Kabul. His father was a colonel in the Afghan Army and enrolled his son at Kabul's Lycee Istiqlal High School. Upon graduation Mas'ud joined Kabul's Polytechnic Institute. In 1973 King Zahir Shah was deposed and exiled by...