Coalition against the Taliban (banned in the Russian Federation as a terrorist organization) headed by Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh, who, after the flight of President Ashraf Ghani from the country, declared himself head of state. Under the banners of resistance to the Taliban, the most decisive forces of the country's former government flocked. Panjshir became a hotbed of resistance. It was there that at one time there was a "patrimony" of the famous Ahmad Shah Masud - "Panjshir lion", and today the baton of resistance was taken by his son Ahmad Massoud Jr..
On the outskirts of the Panjshir Valley forces, loyal to Amrullah Saleh, attacked the positions of the Taliban. They managed to recapture the area of the city of Charikara - the administrative center of the province of Parwan. This is pretty bad news for the Taliban., since Charikar is located between the passes, connecting Kabul with Mazar-i-Sharif via the Salang tunnel. Also, according to some reports, of force, loyal to Amrullah Saleh, unite with the Uzbek formations of Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum. By joint efforts, Uzbek and Tajik formations expect to establish control over the entire Panjshir.
Recall, As for 2001 of the year Panjshir was under the control of the so-called Northern Alliance. Taliban, while ruling in Kabul, did not manage to knock out their opponents from Panjshir. The current situation, looks like, repeats: Panjshir remains the only territory, uncontrolled by the Taliban. So far there is no reason to believe, that the Taliban will be able to capture the Panjshir. Furthermore, anti-Taliban resistance forces are still being formed. Enemies of the Taliban from all over Afghanistan will flock to them. And therefore we are talking about, in fact, a new phase of the civil war..
If we talk about the number of anti-Taliban formations, then it is already estimated at about 16 thousands of people. Although initially only a couple of battalions of Afghan troops were reported. The backbone of the resistance is the military and police of Afghanistan, unwilling to submit to the Taliban. Also under the banners of the new anti-Taliban coalition militias are flocking. Ethnic support of Taliban opponents - Tajik, uzbek, Hazara and Turkmen population.
Armored vehicles of Afghan government forces seen in the location of the anti-Taliban coalition, as well as Mi-17 and UH60A Black Hawk helicopters. Taliban will be quite problematic to capture Panjshir, as there is a clear ethnic divide between the predominantly Pashtun Taliban and the local population. Count on the support of Tajiks, Uzbeks and Turkmens the Taliban are unlikely to be able to.
As for the Hazaras, practicing Shiism, then they are direct opponents of the Taliban, since the Taliban have always been extremely negative about the Shiite population of Afghanistan. Hazaras understand, that this attitude will not change today. In this way, in Afghanistan, in fact, there was a return to the situation 1997-2001 gg., when the country was torn apart by civil war. The withdrawal of American troops reactivated those processes, which already took place in the country more than twenty years ago.
Author:Ilya Polonsky
used photos:Twitter/Ministry of Defense, Afghanistan
