On the 4th, news came out on Western social media:
The Taliban's current main enemy, Massoud, who controls the Panjshir Valley, has fled to Tajikistan.
But Masood reportedly refuted the rumors, claiming that he would fight the Taliban to the end.
Panjahir Resistance spokesman Nazari said that while the Taliban armed forces had launched more attacks, Ahmed Massoud was directing the battle to thwart the Taliban offensive. Nazari said: "He (Masood) is defending the Panjshir Valley. ”
Some Afghan experts also said that the Panjhir Valley has complex terrain and inconvenient transportation, and the attackers will encounter great difficulties, and Masood may use the means of "promoting talks to fight" to strive for a more favorable peace talks with the Taliban.
Currently, the Taliban are encircling the Panjshir Valley region of Afghanistan. The area was the stronghold of the Massoud family, which had not been occupied by foreign enemies during the Soviet invasion and the Taliban's first administration, but many feared that the Massoud faction would not be able to withstand the Taliban without direct U.S. support.
During the active formation of a coalition government, the Taliban stepped up their offensives against areas controlled by Massoud. In the Panjshir Valley, some social media videos showed fierce fighting between the two sides. Massoud's forces said they were under "violent attack."
Not long ago, the Taliban claimed that the Massoud side had offered to occupy 1/3 of the ministerial seats of the coalition government, but the Taliban could not accede to this demand and decided to launch an attack on the Panjshir Valley. Massoud has not commented on this claim.
Days after the United States fully withdraws its troops from Afghanistan and ends a 20-year war, the Taliban are facing the challenge of moving from seizing power to effective governance.
But the Taliban's priority seems to be to capture the Panjhir Valley and achieve the goal of unifying the country. Under the Soviet occupation and the first rule of the Taliban from 1996 to 2001, the Panjshir Valley never fell.
It is reported that the National Resistance Front, composed of anti-Taliban militias and former Afghan Government forces, is fighting the Taliban in the valley, relying on the large stockpiles of weapons accumulated in the past. Earlier Friday, a video was played on pro-Taliban social media accounts showing Taliban fighters allegedly seizing tanks and other heavy military equipment in the valley.
The Taliban and resistance groups said on social media that key areas of the Payan region had been occupied, but the news could not be confirmed by independent sources.
While the West has taken a wait-and-see approach to the Taliban, there are signs that engagement with new leaders is picking up pace.
Until the Taliban returned to power, Afghanistan had been heavily dependent on foreign aid — 40 percent of the country's GDP came from foreign funding. The United Nations warns that 18 million people are facing humanitarian disasters such as famine, and another 18 million may soon be mired in similar problems.
Qatar's special envoy to Afghanistan told Al Jazeera on Friday that Qatar expressed a desire to help establish an air corridor for humanitarian aid at Afghan airports within 48 hours.
The Taliban have committed to a more "inclusive" government that represents Afghanistan's complex ethnic makeup. But the Taliban's negotiations with Massoud failed completely within days.
On Friday, kabul showed signs of returning to normal, with the cricket ground almost full and a large crowd watching the selection of Afghanistan's top cricketers. The Taliban chose to fly their flag side by side with the flag of the former Afghan government, which the Taliban said was a sign of national unity.