Afghan resistance fighters vow to fight to the death

AFGHAN resistance fighters grouping in the Panjshir Valley north of Kabul have vowed to fight the Taliban to the death

Amrullah Saleh, the leader of a resistance group of Afghan forces hiding out in Panjshir Valley, on Tuesday, August 17, declared himself the country’s “legitimate caretaker president” and vowed to resist the Taliban, claiming that his forces, the new Northern Alliance, are ready to fight to the death to defeat the Taliban.

Their base is just 80 miles north of the Afghanistan capital, Kabul – a region that to this day still has the burned out remains of armoured vehicles from the 1980s invasion by the Soviet forces – and is the last remaining of 34 provinces in the country not to be under Taliban rule, and taking to Twiter, Saleh called on all Afghans to join the fight against the Taliban, “Join the resistance. I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to Talib terrorists”, he tweeted.

There have been unconfirmed reports that the Afghan army has not deserted but that thousands of them are headed to the Panjshir Valley to join with the resistance forces, including remaining members of the US-trained elite Special Forces units, allegedly carrying with them equipment and weapons, including tanks, armoured vehicles, and mortars.

Earlier this year, speaking to The Times, the resistance leader told them, “I am ready to die with a chest and head full of a hundred bullets rather than be part of an elite deal which will sell the rights of my people to a medieval terrorist organisation”.

Adding, “I will never betray the soul and legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, the commander, the legend, and the guide”, referring to the former Mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Massoud, who fought against the Taliban as leader of the Northern Alliance, until he was assassinated by al-Qaeda, two days before the attacks on the twin towers in New York on September 11, 2001.

Bismillah Khan, Afghanistan’s defence minister, has given his backing to the resistance, while Tajikistan’s Afghan ambassador has publicly rejected Taliban rule of his country, and says that self-proclaimed acting president Amrullah Saleh and his forces in Panjshir province have the ideal base from which to fight the Taliban, as reported by thesun.co.uk.

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