In a Facebook post Sunday, leader of the National Resistance Front in Afghanistan (NRF) Ahmad Massoud, said he is ready to talk once the Taliban withdraw troops from Panjshir and the neighboring district of Andarab.
Earlier, Taliban spokesman Belal Kareemi told CNN the group’s militant fighters had taken all districts of Panjshir province except for the capital of Bazarak and Rokha districts, which remain under NRF control. But resistance fighters appeared to rebut the Taliban’s claims.
Panjshir is a strategic slice of mountainous terrain rich with precious mineral resources around 90 miles (144 kilometers) north of Kabul, and the only region among Afghanistan’s 34 provinces to remain out of the Taliban’s control.
For two weeks the NRF, a multi-ethnic group that includes former Afghan security force members and reportedly numbers in the thousands, has continued the fight against the…
