Live updates Taliban fighters head to resistance stronghold seeking to seize control

The Taliban has sent hundreds of fighters to Panjshir Valley, the last significant outpost in Afghanistan not controlled by the Islamist militant group. The valley, some 90 miles northeast of Kabul, has long been an anti-Taliban stronghold, and a resistance movement is once again forming there.

There were conflicting reports late Sunday as to whether fighting between the parties had broken out. Among the anti-Taliban leaders reportedly in the valley are Amrullah Saleh, vice president of the now-fallen government, and Ahmad Massoud, son of an assassinated military commander who fought the Soviet Union and, later, the Taliban.

Massoud told Reuters Sunday that he hoped for peaceful talks with the Taliban but that his supporters were ready to fight if the militants invaded. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, Massoud wrote: “No matter what happens, my mujahideen fighters and I will defend Panjshir as the last bastion of Afghan freedom. Our morale is intact. We know from experience what awaits us.”

It is not clear how many anti-Taliban fighters have massed in the valley, nor how significant any resistance might be. Forces there include Afghan soldiers who had escaped the Taliban, as well as local militia fighters.

Here’s what to know

President Biden said Sunday that he is having “discussions” about extending the deadline for the American troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, which had been scheduled for Aug. 31. The U.S. military is “executing a plan” to move stranded American citizens to the Kabul airport in greater numbers, he added.

The United States and its partners have evacuated nearly 28,000 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, including 11,000 over the weekend, the White House said.

Seven Afghan civilians, including a toddler, were reportedly killed outside Kabul airport, where the security situation is increasingly tense.

Britain’s Johnson to press Biden to extend U.S. troop stay, consider new Taliban sanctions Link copied

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will ask President Biden to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond the White House’s Aug. 31 deadline because of the significant challenge of evacuating large numbers of foreign nationals and vulnerable Afghans seeking to flee the Taliban by that date.

Johnson will lobby Biden on Tuesday at a virtual gathering of Group of Seven leaders, the Guardian newspaper said. The U.S.-led airlift has evacuated fewer people than had been expected, and thousands of Western nationals and many more allied Afghans remain in the Taliban-controlled country.

“I will tell them that we’ll see what we can do,” Biden said of the anticipated G-7 request, adding that “our hope is we will not have to extend.”

The United States and its partners have evacuated nearly 28,000 people from Afghanistan since Aug. 14, including 11,000 this weekend, Biden said Sunday.

Johnson will also request that G-7 leaders consider applying new sanctions against the Taliban if the Islamist militant group commits human rights abuses or harbors terrorists in Afghanistan, Reuters reported, citing two unidentified sources. The White House has indicated that it would support such a move.

The Taliban governed Afghanistan brutally between 1996 and 2001, and its past, coupled with reports of recent abuses, has stirred concerns that the new regime will be equally harsh. Allegations of suspected war crimes have reinforced those fears. Taliban leaders also harbored Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaeda members involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks during their last rule.

Numerous senior Taliban officials, including its de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, remain under United Nations and Western sanctions. A travel ban exemption issued to the organization’s leaders to facilitate peace talks is slated for renewal in September.

Perspective: Nativism in U.S. politics has thwarted refugee resettlement before By E. Kyle Romero12:30 a.m.Link copied

On Aug. 15, Taliban forces captured the Afghan capital of Kabul, the culmination of its campaign to seize control of the country in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal. The stunning speed with which the Taliban moved into the city has led to massive displacement, with hundreds of thousands of people seeking safe haven. In preparation, the United States has opened a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) process that is moving slowly to admit Afghans who worked with the U.S. military. Simultaneously, the Biden administration is in negotiations with other nations to admit the Afghans who do not qualify for the small number of SIVs currently being processed.

The dispersion of refugees across the world has long been a part of U.S. foreign policy. Far from being a clear leader in refugee resettlement, the United States has more often engaged with global refugee movements as border control and management projects rather than as humanitarian crises.

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