title: San Francisco Armory

text: A group known as the Mission Armory Community Collective soon formed in opposition to Kink.com's use of The Armory; the group held a public protest in front of The Armory in early February 2007. San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom also expressed concern over the Kink.com purchase, and scheduled a special meeting of the San Francisco Planning Commission in March 2007 to review the company's use of the building. This public meeting was well-attended by both supporters and detractors of the Kink.com purchase. The Planning Commission for its part ruled that Kink.com was not in violation of any law or zoning requirement.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: Although Kink.com stated that its activities would be invisible to the surrounding neighborhood, La Casa de las Madres, a neighboring women's shelter, announced in late March 2007 that they would be leaving the location. The shelter had planned on moving from that location in 2009 when their lease expired, but stated that they would be leaving the location because of the media scrutiny of Kink.com's presence.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: As summarized in retrospect by the "San Francisco Chronicle" in 2018, after the initial protests "Acworth eventually won praise for the restoration work he did on the brick Moorish castle, which had long been empty".


title: San Francisco Armory

text: In late 2007, Acworth approached the San Francisco Planning Commission with the idea of converting part of the Armory space into webcam-lined condominia. However, Acworth also described the plans as "extremely hypothetical" and stated that, "There is no firm plan for using the Armory for anything but a conventional film studio for now."


title: San Francisco Armory

text: In May and December, 2008, the San Francisco Armory hosted Mission Bazaar, an all-ages arts fair featuring local artists and craftspeople selling their work, as well as performances. It was the first public event held in the Armory since the 1970s.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: Since then, the building has housed public events and sports competitions. It was open for public tours and BDSM-related workshops.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: In January 2017, Kink.com announced that it would cease the use of the Armory for film production. In 2018 the building was purchased by a Nashville real estate firm.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: In 2011, Armory Events started work on the Drill Court, a multi-purpose event space. The venue is 40,000 square feet with an occupancy of 4,000 people, an 80 feet high dome ceiling, and 33,500 square feet of hardwood maple floating floor. As of 2018, the new owner was not intending to continue using it as an entertainment venue.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: In January 2018, the building was sold for $65 million to SF Armory LLC, an affiliate of the Chicago-based investment company AJ Capital Partners. The new owner stated it was planning to convert the building's top two floors to office space and to lease the rest to manufacturing companies.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: Guides employed by Kink.com frequently repeated the mostly inaccurate but widely held belief that a remnant portion of Mission Creek flows through the building's sub-basement.


title: San Francisco Armory

text: The water in the sub-basement is groundwater which would have percolated through the soils into nearby Mission Creek during the time it existed as an open waterway. Any basement or excavation dug just as deep in the neighborhood would fill with water to a typical depth of many feet, the exact depth depending on season and rainfall factors. Pumps constantly running within the building prevent the groundwater from pooling in the sub-basement. According to Kink.com guides, groundwater completely filled the sub-basement at the time their company purchased the building.


title: Talking bird

text: Talking birds are birds that can mimic the speech of humans. There is debate within the scientific community over whether some talking parrots also have some cognitive understanding of the language. Birds have varying degrees of talking ability: some, like the corvids, are able to mimic only a few words and phrases, while some budgerigars have been observed to have a vocabulary of almost 2,000 words. The hill myna, a common pet, is well known for its talking ability and its relative, the European starling, is also adept at mimicry. Wild cockatoos in Australia have been reported to have learned human speech by cultural transmission from ex-captive birds that have integrated into the flock.


title: Talking bird

text: The earliest reference to a talking bird comes from Ctesias in the 5th century BC. The bird, which he called Bittacus, may have been a plum-headed parakeet.


title: Talking bird

text: The young of some birds learn to communicate vocally by social learning, imitating their parents, as well as the dominant birds of their flock. Lacking vocal cords, birds are thought to make tones and sounds using throat muscles and membranes – the syrinx in particular. There are likely to be limitations on the sounds that birds can mimic due to differences in anatomical structures, such as their lacking lips.


title: Talking bird

text: It has been suggested that mimicry amongst birds is almost ubiquitous and it is likely that eventually, all species will be shown to be able to have some ability to mimic extra-specific sounds (but not necessarily human speech). Mimicking human speech is not limited to captive birds. Wild Australian magpies, lyrebirds and bowerbirds that interact with humans but remain free can still mimic human speech.


title: Talking bird

text: Songbirds and parrots are the two groups of birds able to learn and mimic human speech. However, it has been found that the mynah bird, part of the starling family, can also be conditioned to learn and create human speech. Pet birds can be taught to speak by their owners by mimicking their voice. If then introduced to wild birds, the wild birds may also mimic the new sounds. This phenomenon has been observed in public parks in Sydney, Australia, where wild parrots utter phrases such as "Hello darling!" and "What's happening?"


title: Talking bird

text: The eclectus parrot ("Eclectus roratus") is a strong talker, although these abilities depend entirely on training from an early age.


title: Talking bird

text: The Abyssinian lovebird ("Agapornis taranta") can talk if trained at an early age; however, they only rarely develop into competent talkers.


title: Talking bird

text: Many species of the genus "Amazona" are talkers, including the yellow-headed amazon ("Amazona oratrix"), yellow-crowned amazon ("Amazona ochrocephala"), yellow-naped amazon ("Amazona auropalliata"), blue-fronted amazon ("Amazona aestiva"), white-fronted amazon ("Amazona albifrons"), lilac-crowned amazon ("Amazona finschi"), orange-winged amazon ("Amazona amazonica"), Panama amazon ("Amazona ochrocephala panamensis") and mealy amazon ("Amazona farinosa"). They tend to relate sounds to relationships more than the grey parrots, and therefore outperform the grey parrots in more social environments.


title: Talking bird

text: The African grey parrots ("Psittacus") are particularly noted for their advanced cognitive abilities and their ability to talk. There are two commonly kept species of which the Timneh parrot ("Psittacus timneh") tends to learn to speak at a younger age than the Congo parrot ("Psittacus erithacus"). Pet Congo greys may learn to speak within their first year, but many do not say their first word until 12–18 months old. Timnehs are generally observed to start speaking earlier, some in their late first year.


title: Talking bird

text: Australian galahs ("Eolophus roseicapilla") can talk, although not as well as some other parrots. Male galahs are reportedly easier to teach than females.


title: Talking bird

text: The budgerigar, or common parakeet ("Melopsittacus undulatus"), is a popular talking-bird species because of their potential for large vocabularies, ease of care and well-socialized demeanor. Between 1954 and 1962, a budgerigar named Sparkie Williams held the record for having the largest vocabulary of a talking bird; at his death, he knew 531 words and 383 sentences. In 1995, a budgerigar named Puck was credited by Guinness World Records as having the largest vocabulary of any bird, at 1,728 words.


title: Talking bird

text: The monk parakeet ("Myiopsitta monachus"), sometimes known as the quaker parakeet, is also a skilled talker.


title: Talking bird

text: The Indian ring-neck parakeet ("Psittacula krameri manillensis"), a subspecies of the rose-ringed parakeet, is an accomplished talker and popular pet which can develop a large vocabulary and talk clearly in sentences.


title: Talking bird

text: The blossom-headed parakeet ("Psittacula roseata") is rare and therefore not often kept as a pet, however, they are good talkers.


title: Talking bird

text: The African ring-neck parakeet ("Psittacula krameri krameri"), another subspecies of the rose-ringed parakeet, can also talk, but some may never learn if not trained at an early age.


title: Talking bird

text: The Derbyan parakeet ("Psittacula derbianais") is an excellent talker. The clarity of their speech has been compared to that of amazon parrots although they may not learn extensive vocabularies.


title: Talking bird

text: Hill mynahs (tropical members of the starling family of birds) are renowned for their ability to mimic the human voice. It has been claimed that the hill mynah is the best talking bird and the best mimic in the world.


title: Talking bird

text: A Domestic or Atlantic canary ("Serinus canaria forma domestica") named Pinchi, who lived in 1966 from 2–3 months of age with a resident of the city of Leningrad (USSR), learned to imitate the human speech of his owner-educator and weave it into his song. The bird began to repeat the tunes of its mistress's high voice "Pinchi, Briks – cute birds, weird little birds, these are these birds" after 4 months and in year and a half canary Pinchi completely formed his song from the words of human speech and the trills of birds. The singing of canary Pinchi, containing the words of human speech, was recorded on a tape recorder, and then published on a gramophone record in the record company Melodiya. In 1976, copies of this record were attached to the book by A. S. Malchevsky and co-authors "Birds in front of a microphone and a camera", and were also sold separately.


title: Talking bird

text: Several members of the corvids or crow family, such as ravens, can mimic human speech. The best talking crows may be the ones found in captivity at zoos and wildlife centers.


title: Talking bird

text: European starlings ("Sturnus vulgaris") are exceptional mimics, including human speech. Their ability at mimicry is so great that strangers have looked in vain for the human they think they have just heard speak.


title: Talking bird

text: The northern mockingbird ("Mimus polyglottos"), as both the common and taxonomic names suggest, are mimickers of a great number of sounds. This includes human speech.


title: Talking bird

text: In Australia, lyrebirds are great mimics of many sounds, including the human voice. Lyrebirds have three syringeal muscles whereas most other songbirds have four. This could make the syrinx of the lyrebird more flexible. In a study comparing the sonograms of lyrebirds and Australian magpies during mimicking, the author stated that the mimicry of the lyrebird was "impressionistic" while that of the magpie was "realistic".


title: Talking bird

text: One hand-raised Australian magpie ("Gymnorhina tibicen") developed the ability to mimic human speech, including words and phrases. This individual mimicked a large number of (non-human) sounds, but a third of all mimicked sounds were of human speech. The author stated that mimicry by the magpie was far more accurate than that of the lyrebird.


title: Talking bird

text: Several theories have been proposed regarding the function of audible mimicry in general; however, these do not make a specific theory regarding why human speech is mimicked. Several of the theories will apply to only some species due to social structure, habitat and behavioural ecology.


title: Talking bird

text: It has been suggested that (general) mimicry of non-bird related sounds is simply a mistaken attempt to copy species-specific calls.


title: Talking bird

text: In the wild, flocks of parrots develop distinct local dialects. Research indicates they use these to distinguish familiar members of their flock from unfamiliar birds of other flocks. Birds respond more to vocalisations that are familiar to their own, and they ostracize individuals that vocalise in a different way. Birds raised in captivity might mimic humans, particularly their owners, to gain acceptance as a member of the family (flock). If they hear a word or phrase repeatedly, they might interpret that as a vocalisation distinct to their flock. They then attempt to make the vocalisation themselves to maintain their membership of that flock. If the parrot gets no response when it squawks a natural parrot vocalisation, but receives attention or food when it mimics human speech, it has an extra incentive to repeat human words and phrases.


title: Talking bird

text: The territorial song of lyrebirds is relatively simple and substantially different from that of the sounds they mimic—including human speech.


title: Talking bird

text: One proposed function for (general) mimicry is that mimics have evolved to have a wide repertoire of vocalisations to increase their reproductive success. The male lyrebird, for example, adorns his song with many different mimicked sounds, often the songs of other nearby birds, but can include car horns, chainsaws and barking dogs.


title: Talking bird

text: General mimicry may help a bird prevent itself or its offspring from being preyed upon. For example, the Australian magpie mimics the call of the barking owl and the boobook owl, both predators of the magpie's young.


title: Talking bird

text: Some birds, such as the Australian magpie, mimic only those noises it hears whilst in its territory. It has been suggested that birds with complex social organisation may develop an auditory map of their territory, as well as visual, and that mimicking facilitates this process.


title: Talking bird

text: There is controversy about whether parrots are capable of using language, or merely mimic what they hear. However, some scientific studies—for example those conducted over a 30-year period by Irene Pepperberg with a grey parrot named Alex and other parrots, covered in stories on network television on numerous occasions—have suggested that these parrots are capable of using words meaningfully in linguistic tasks.


title: Talking bird

text: Some in the scientific community are skeptical of Pepperberg's findings, pointing to Alex's communications as operant conditioning. Critics point to the case of Clever Hans, a horse whose owner claimed could count, but who instead was actually understanding subtle cues from him. In another case, Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee, was thought to be using language, but there is some debate over whether he simply imitated his teacher. Dr. Herbert Terrace, who worked with Nim Chimpsky, says he thinks Alex performed by rote rather than using language; he calls Alex's responses "a complex discriminating performance", adding that in every situation, "there is an external stimulus that guides his response." However, supporters of Alex mention that Alex was able to talk to and perform for anyone involved in the project as well as complete strangers who recorded findings unassisted and during first contact with the bird, making the arguments of rote learning and operant conditioning difficult to substantiate.


title: Talking bird

text: Scientists in France and the Czech Republic have also had some success in teaching grey parrots to label items referentially using human language, albeit using a different teaching methodology to that of Pepperberg—which was found to be ineffective in the case of the particular birds within the study.


title: Talking bird

text: Alex, a grey parrot, had a vocabulary of about 100 words, substantially fewer than world record holders, but he is perhaps the best known talking bird due to the publicity surrounding his potential cognitive abilities. In learning to speak, Alex showed scientist Irene Pepperberg that he understood categorization like "same and different" and "bigger and smaller". He could identify objects by their shape ("Three-corner", "Four-corner", up to "Six-corner") and material: when shown a pom-pom or a wooden block, he could answer "Wool" or "Wood" correctly, approximately 80% of the time. Alex could identify the difference between yellow and green same-sized objects by saying "Color" or identify a larger one by naming its color. If asked what the difference was between two identical blue keys, Alex learned to reply, "None" (he pronounced it "Nuh"). Alex died on September 6, 2007.


title: Talking bird

text: "Prudle" held the Guinness World Record for many years as the bird with the largest vocabulary - a documented 800 words.


title: Talking bird

text: "N'kisi", another grey parrot, is noted for his impressive English usage skills and other abilities. As of January 2004, he had a documented vocabulary of 950 words. N'kisi is believed to be one of the most advanced users of human language in the animal world.


title: Talking bird

text: "Einstein" appeared on many television shows and became famous for his ability to recreate sounds as well as talking. Video clips show him making the sound of a laser beam generator and an evil-sounding laugh. He has been trained by Stephanie White.


title: Talking bird

text: While not a real bird, "Grip", an integral character in Charles Dickens' novel "Barnaby Rudge", was based on a raven Dickens had as a pet at the time he was writing the novel. On more than one occasion, Grip's untimely utterances affect the course of the narrative. Grip was the inspiration for Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven".


title: Talking bird

text: Talking birds are used as a plot element in fiction, notably in many works by Gabriel García Márquez.


title: Hot Country Songs

text: This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sales and streaming.


title: Hot Country Songs

text: The current number-one song, as of the chart dated December 24, 2022, is "You Proof" by Morgan Wallen.


title: Hot Country Songs

text: "Billboard" began compiling the popularity of country songs with its January 8, 1944, issue. Only the genre's most popular jukebox selections were tabulated, with the chart titled "Most Played Juke Box Folk Records".


title: Hot Country Songs

text: For approximately ten years, from 1948 to 1958, "Billboard" used three charts to measure the popularity of a given song. In addition to the jukebox chart, these charts included:


title: Hot Country Songs

text: The juke box chart was discontinued in June 1957. Starting with the October 20, 1958, issue, "Billboard" began combining sales and radio airplay in figuring a song's overall popularity, counting them in one single chart called "Hot C&W Sides". The chart was published under the title Hot C&W Sides through the October 27, 1962, issue and "Hot Country Singles" thereafter, a title it would retain until 1990.


title: Hot Country Songs

text: On January 20, 1990, the Hot Country Singles chart was reduced from 100 to 75 positions and began to be compiled entirely from information provided by Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems, a system which electronically monitors radio airplay of songs. Four weeks later, on February 17, the chart was retitled "Hot Country Singles & Tracks". Beginning with the January 13, 2001, issue, the chart was reduced from 75 to 60 positions, and all songs on the chart at the time had their tally of weeks spent on the chart adjusted to count only weeks spent at No. 60 or higher. Effective April 30, 2005, the chart was renamed "Hot Country Songs".


title: Hot Country Songs

text: Starting in 1990, the rankings were determined by Arbitron-tallied listener audience for each spin that a song received. The methodology was changed for the first chart published in 1992 to tally the amount of spins a song received, but in January 2005, the methodology reverted to the audience format. This change was brought on because of "label-sponsored spin programs" that had manipulated the chart several times in 2004.


title: Hot Country Songs

text: The Hot Country Songs chart methodology was changed starting with the October 20, 2012, issue to match the "Billboard" Hot 100: digital downloads and streaming data are combined with airplay from all radio formats to determine position. A new chart, the Country Airplay chart, was created using airplay exclusively from country radio stations. Following the change, songs that were receiving airplay on top-40 pop were given a major advantage over songs popular only on country radio, and as an unintended consequence, such songs began having record-long runs at the top of the chart. The first song to benefit from this change was Taylor Swift's "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together", which had been declining in popularity but shot up to number one on the chart the first week the change took effect and stayed there until it set an all-time record for the most weeks at No. 1 by a solo female. This was followed almost immediately by Florida Georgia Line's "Cruise", which had the longest stay at number one of any song in the country chart's history (24 weeks), until it was surpassed by Sam Hunt's "Body Like a Back Road" in 2017 (34 weeks). The record was subsequently broken by Bebe Rexha and Florida Georgia Line's "Meant to Be" in 2018 (50 weeks).


title: Hot Country Songs

text: "Billboard" has not explicitly defined how it determines which songs qualify for the country chart and which ones do not, only that "a few factors are determined (...) first and foremost is musical composition" and that a song must "embrace enough elements of today's country music" to qualify. The 1990–2012 chart did not have such ambiguity, being objectively measured by airplay from specifically identified country stations alone. A later statement from "Billboard" elaborated on what those "few factors" entailed: "most notably the song's musical composition, but also how the song is marketed and promoted, the musical history of the artist, airplay the song receives and how the song is platformed on streaming services". The 2019 country rap record "Old Town Road" by Lil Nas X was a subject of controversy over this ambiguous standard after it initially appeared on the country chart, where it debuted and peaked at number 19, before "Billboard" took the song off subsequent charts, claiming it had made a mistake in including it. The song gained popularity through viral memes rather than radio, as only one country station, Radio Disney Country, had played it at the time of the charting.


title: Hot Country Songs

text: These are the songs with 15 or more weeks at number one. Sixteen songs accomplished this feat between 1944 and 1964, but none did so again until after the 2012 reformulation; between "Almost Persuaded's" nine-week run in 1966 and the chart's reformulation in 2012, no song spent more than eight weeks atop the chart. Prolonged runs became commonplace again in 2012. , eight songs from this period have topped the chart for at least 16 weeks, and the top five longest chart runs have all been since 2012.


title: Hot Country Songs

text: Note: Songs marked achieved the listed run on the Most Played in Juke Boxes chart (published 1944-58). Songs marked achieved the listed run on the Best Sellers on Stores chart (published 1948-58). Songs marked § achieved the listed run on the Most Played by Jockeys chart (published 1949-58). All these songs also had shorter runs at number one on the other charts not indicated. In 1958 the three charts were merged to create Hot C&W Sides (now Hot Country Songs).


title: Hot Country Songs

text: George Strait has the most number one hits, at 44. Dolly Parton has the most number ones of any female artist, with 25.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Alicia Garza (born January 4, 1981) is an American civil rights activist and writer known for co-founding the international Black Lives Matter movement. She has organized around the issues of health, student services and rights, rights for domestic workers, ending police brutality, anti-racism, and violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people of color. Her editorial writing has been published by "The Guardian", "The Nation", "Rolling Stone", and Truthout. She currently directs Special Projects at the National Domestic Workers Alliance and is the Principal at the Black Futures Lab.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza was born to a single mother in Oakland, California, on January 4, 1981. Her first four years were spent in San Rafael, living with her African-American mother and her mother's twin brother. After that she lived with her mother and her Jewish stepfather, and she grew up as Alicia Schwartz in a mixed-raced and mixed-religion household. Garza identifies as Jewish. The family lived first in San Rafael and then Tiburon, and ran an antiques business, assisted later by her brother Joey, eight years her junior. When she was 12 years old, Alicia engaged in activism, promoting school sex education about birth control. Enrolling in the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), she continued her activism by working at the student health center and joining the student association calling for higher pay for the university's janitors. In her final year at college, she helped organize the first Women of Color Conference, a university-wide convocation held at UCSD in 2002. She graduated in 2002 with a degree in anthropology and sociology.


title: Alicia Garza

text: During a blockage at Bay Bridge in 2003, Garza saw Malachi in a crowd, doing a role of security. Through that same network a few weeks later, Garza received an email about the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL). When she showed up to her interview, her interviewer (Malachi) was forty minutes late. Garza says in the 2016 YBCA 100 Summit, “a twenty minute interview turned into a four hour conversation, I remember leaving there and saying 'I met my soulmate’”. In 2004, Alicia came out as queer to her family. In 2008, she married Malachi and took the name Garza, settling in Oakland. In September 2021, Garza announced that the two had ended their relationship after 17 years.


title: Alicia Garza

text: The sentiment of #BlackLivesMatter has deep roots in African American culture. These roots are what Garza inscribed on her skin.


title: Alicia Garza

text: On March 28, 2018, Garza announced via her Instagram page, "I wish this was a better update. Moms has a glioblastoma—a very aggressive brain tumor. The cancer cells have spread all over her brain". A month later on April 30, 2018 Alicia said “ Moms passed away peacefully earlier today, surrounded by her family. I was holding her hand when she died…”.


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2003 Garza returned to the Bay Area, where she began a training program in political education with the School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL) that taught young people of color how to organize, by placing them with local community based organizations in West Oakland. Garza began working with Just Cause Oakland, where she met her former partner Malachi Garza, a transgender man and a community activist.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Completing her internship at SOUL, Garza joined a campaign that researched the relationship between increasing economic security for People Of Color, and increased community security. She said in an Interview with Vanity Fair: “Building economic opportunities in local communities is a better alternative to dealing with crime and violence, than increasing police budgets” Her initial project with PUEBLO was to gather community resistance in East Oakland against a proposed Walmart.


title: Alicia Garza

text: When the nearby work committee pulled their assistance in the action against Walmart, PUEBLO was unable to win. In 2005, the first Walmart in that area opened.


title: Alicia Garza

text: After leaving PUEBLO, Garza began working with the UC Student Association for a year promoting activism to university students. In 2005 she joined People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in Bayview–Hunters Point.


title: Alicia Garza

text: POWER is a "multi-racial and multi-lingual grassroots organization of African Americans and Latinas committed to winning economic, environmental, racial, and gender justice. Rooted in issues-based campaigns, leadership development and movement building, POWER builds the collective strength of working-class families to control the destinies of their communities and workplaces."


title: Alicia Garza

text: She advocated for increasing funding for accessible public housing and maintenance, in order to assist homeowners in moving underground power lines. This was a $7 billion task to transform 250 acres of land, including the contaminated area with radioactivity, toward the area of the Bayview least served by public transportation. Free transit for young people was approved, and expanded to seniors and people with disabilities. The same year, POWER organizers published a book analyzing how capitalism and imperialism were threatening the livelihoods of San Francisco and the Bay Area's working-class communities of color. In opposition to the changes they saw in their communities, POWER formed a coalition between other groups against the project's developer, Lennar. With Gavin Newsom, much of the Democratic Party establishment and Lennar opposing them, POWER lost. As a result, the respective ballot initiative, Proposition F lost 37 percent to 63 percent.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Following a brief sabbatical, Alicia Garza joined the National Domestic Workers Alliance creating a program focused on Black domestic workers. Shortly before this, Garza founded Black Lives Matter with Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.


title: Alicia Garza

text: With Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors, Garza birthed the Black Lives Matter hashtag. Garza is credited with inspiring the slogan when, after the July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman of murder in the death of Trayvon Martin, she posted on Facebook: "I continue to be surprised at how little Black lives matter... Our lives matter." Cullors shared this with the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. She was also struck by the similarities of Trayvon Martin to her younger brother, Joey, feeling that Joey could have been killed instead. The organization Black Lives Matter was spurred on by the killings of Black people by police, racial disparities within the U.S. criminal legal system, mass incarceration, police militarization, and over-criminalization. In particular, the movement was born and Garza's post became popularized after protests emerged in Ferguson, Missouri, following the death of Michael Brown.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza led the 2015 Freedom Ride to Ferguson, organized by Cullors and Darnell Moore, that launched the building of BlackLivesMatter chapters across the United States and the world. However, Garza does not think of the Black Lives Matter Movement as her creation; she feels her work is only a continuation of the resistance led by Black people in America. The movement and Garza are credited for popularizing the use of social media for mass mobilization in the United States; a practice called "mediated mobilization". This practice has been used by other movements, such as the #MeToo movement.


title: Alicia Garza

text: On April 10, 2020 Garza debuted her podcast Lady Don’t Take No, named after the song ”Lady Don't Tek No" by Latyrx. It is a tribute to the Bay Area, where she discusses “political commentary with a side of beauty recommendations”


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza's first book, "The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart," was published in October 2020 by Penguin Random House. Described as "an essential guide", the book tells Garza's story as an activist and shares lessons for future activists.“My experience with BLM toughened my skin and softened my heart.. it taught me how to recommit to work that broke my heart every day,” Garza said in the book. When asked about this quote in an interview with Angelica Ross, Garza responded, “I wanted people to see under the hood and under the curtains of what goes on in this work.. I’ve had the experience of feeling like I was not cut out for this work, and I wanted to humanize the movement”.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza was one of the protesters holding back the BART train in Oakland, CA in 2014. Once this protest ended, Garza started a new generation of civil rights leaders. Garza is now the 27th most influential African American (behind her counterpart, Patrisse Cullors) on the Root 100, an annual list of black influencers. She has given speeches to audiences across the United States of America, from union halls to the United Nations Office of the High Commission on Human Rights.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza's editorial writing has been published by "The Guardian", "The Nation", The Feminist Wire, "Rolling Stone", "HuffPost" and Truthout. She currently directs Special Projects at the National Domestic Workers Alliance.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Previously, Garza had served as the director of People Organized to Win Employment Rights (POWER) in the San Francisco Bay Area. During her time in the position, she won the right for youth to use public transportation for free in San Francisco, and campaigned against gentrification and police brutality in the area. Garza is an active participant in several Bay Area social movement groups. She is on the board of directors of Forward Together's Oakland California branch and is also involved with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity. She is also on the board of directors for Oakland's School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL). In 2011, she was the Chair person of Right to the City Alliance


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2015, Garza was selected as the Member's Choice for Community Grand Marshal at 2015 Pride celebration, as she was considered a local hero in Oakland for her contributions to the LGBTQ community and society at large. Over two dozen Black Lives Matter organizers and supporters marched in the Pride Parade behind Garza, who sat next to transgender rights activist Miss Major, the previous year's Community Grand Marshal.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza presented at the 2016 Bay Area Rising event, speaking about the propagation of Black Lives Matter and human rights.


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2017, Garza spoke to graduating students from San Francisco State University. In her speech, Garza praised the persistence of the Black women who came before her, saying that they laid the foundation for modern activism: "Were it not for black women, there would be no Underground Railroad, no one to campaign against black bodies swinging from trees like strange fruit, there would be no protest songs like the ones that came from the toes, through the womb up, through the lungs and out of the brilliant mind and mouth of Nina Simone. There would be no black women voting like the 96 percent of us who did vote and said hell no to this administration. There would be no America were it not for black women. This is an ode to black women – because black women are magic. [...] We, I, you and me – we owe everything to black women. [...] Yes – all lives, all contributions. But this? This is bigger than all that. This is about black women, cisgender, transgender, no gender, disabled, queer, immigrant black women who time and time again keep trying to tell y'all and more than that... keep showing y'all. We are magic."


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza participated in an attempt to stop a Bay Area Rapid Transit train for four and a half hours, a time chosen to reflect the time that Michael Brown's body was left in the street after he was killed. The protesters stopped the train for an hour and a half by chaining themselves both to the inside of the train and the outside, making it impossible for the door to close. The event ended when police removed the protestors by dismantling part of the train.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Supermajority was established in the spring of 2019 and is focused on creating political power for American women. The organization Supermajority was created by Garza, Cecile Richards, and Ai-jen Poo. Supermajority intends to "train and mobilize two million women across America to become organizers, activists, and leaders ahead of the 2020 election" to create a "multiracial, intergenerational movement for women's equality." One of the main goals of Supermajority is to create "'a women's new deal,'" with women's issues like "voting rights, gun control, paid family leave, and equal pay" being seen as "issues that impact everyone" for the 2020 presidency, as well as build a greater platform for women in politics. In the 2020 election, cofounder Cecile Richards says "[the group will be successful] if 54% of voters in this country are women and if we are able to insert into this country the issues that women care about and elect a president who’s committed to doing something about them."


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2018 Garza launched Black Futures Lab, whose goal is to engage with advocate organizations to advance policies that make black communities stronger. The first project for Black Futures Lab was the Black Census Project. This project was the largest survey on Black People since the Reconstruction era of the United States. The survey included questions on subjects such as political attitudes, organization affiliation, experiences with racism and police violence, perceptions of social movements, access to healthcare and economic well-being. Black Future Labs plans to use the results of the Black Census Project to determine pressing legislative and policy issues. Garza divided the Black Census Project into creating separate studies focusing on the black LGBTQ community as well as the black community's political engagement in the United States.


title: Alicia Garza

text: While Garza has been critical of Donald Trump, she has also been critical of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, saying: "The Clintons use black people for votes, but then don't do anything for black communities after they're elected. They use us for photo ops." She voted for Bernie Sanders in the California Democratic Primary, but promised to do everything in her power "to make sure that we are not led by Donald Trump", and she voted for Clinton in the general election.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza gave a speech to a crowd of 200 students on the 2020 elections in celebration of Black History Month. She spoke about how the Black Lives Matter Movement is misinterpreted as being anti-white, anti-law enforcement, or a terrorist organization. In this speech, she showed support for the Green New Deal, condemned voter suppression, and called for more voter involvement. Garza endorsed Elizabeth Warren in the Democratic primary.


title: Alicia Garza

text: InGarza was recognized on the Root 100 list of African American Achievers between the ages of 25 and 45. She was also recognized on the Politico50 2015 guide to Thinkers, Doers, and Visionaries, along with Cullors and Tometi.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza has received the Local Hero award from the "San Francisco Bay Guardian". She has been twice awarded by the Harvey Milk Democratic Club the Bayard Rustin Community Activist Award for her work fighting racism and gentrification in San Francisco. She has also been awarded the Jeanne Gauna Communicate Justice Award from the Centre for Media Justice.


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2015, Garza, Cullors, and Tometi (as "The Women of #BlackLivesMatter") were among the nine runners-up for "The Advocate"s Person of the Year.


title: Alicia Garza

text: In November 2017, Black Lives Matter founders Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi were awarded the Sydney Peace Prize.


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2018 Garza was named in the inaugural cohort of the Atlantic Fellows for Racial Equity (AFRE). This first cohort of 29 Atlantic Fellows are focused on challenging racism in the U.S. and South Africa and disrupting the rise of white nationalism and supremacy.


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2020, Garza was named to "Fortune" magazine's '40 Under 40' list under the "Government and Politics" category.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Garza is included in "Time" magazine"'s" 100 Most Influential People of 2020 and on the list of the BBC's 100 Women announced on 23 November 2020.


title: Alicia Garza

text: In 2020, Garza also was number 32 on Fast Company's Queer 50 list. In 2022, she was number 40 on the list.


title: Alicia Garza

text: Alicia Garza will be the keynote speaker at UC San Diego's 2021 Commencement ceremonies, held on June 11–13, 2021. The chancellor of the University, Chancellor Kohsla, said in a report by UC San Diego news, "Alicia Garza’s determination to be a catalyst for change has deeply influenced our campus community, and we are honored to feature her as our Commencement keynote speaker...Her commitment to health equity and rights for domestic workers as well as ending police violence, racism and violence against transgender and gender non-conforming people of color has made a significant impact on the lives of many in our nation and around the world”


title: Amy Davidson

text: Amy Davidson is an American actress. She is known for playing Kerry Hennessy in the ABC sitcom "8 Simple Rules".


title: Amy Davidson

text: Born in Phoenix, Davidson was raised by educators. Her father was a principal at "El Mirage" Elementary School, and her mother was an English teacher at Desert Foothills Junior High School. Her parents enrolled her in dance classes as a young child. While attending Shadow Mountain High School, she began appearing in advertisements. Her acting coach encouraged her to move to Hollywood.


title: Amy Davidson

text: After appearing in the TV movie "The Truth About Jane" and an episode of the drama series "Judging Amy", she was cast in the Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen series "So Little Time".


title: Amy Davidson

text: Beginning in 2002, she then portrayed Kerry Hennessy in all 76 episodes of the aforementioned "8 Simple Rules". She guest-starred on the sitcom "Malcolm in the Middle" and in the Hallmark Channel film "Annie's Point" opposite Betty White and Richard Thomas. Other roles include the film "Goyband", in which she stars as a young Orthodox Jewish girl who falls for an ex-boyband pop star (Adam Pascal) who performs at her family's hotel in the Catskill Mountains.


title: Amy Davidson

text: Davidson married actor Kacy Lockwood on May 1, 2010. On November 2, 2015, Davidson announced on Instagram that they were expecting their first child. She gave birth to her son on March 1, 2016.


title: Piety

text: Piety is a virtue which may include religious devotion or spirituality. A common element in most conceptions of piety is a duty of respect. In a religious context piety may be expressed through pious activities or devotions, which may vary among countries and cultures.


title: Piety

text: The word piety comes from the Latin word "pietas", the noun form of the adjective "pius" (which means "devout" or "dutiful").


title: Piety

text: "Pietas" in traditional Latin usage expressed a complex, highly valued Roman virtue; a man with "pietas" respected his responsibilities to gods, country, parents, and kin. In its strictest sense it was the sort of love a son ought to have for his father. Aeneas's consistent epithet in Virgil and other Latin authors is "pius", a term which connotes reverence toward the gods and familial dutifulness. At the fall of Troy, Aeneas carries to safety his father, the lame Anchises, and the Lares and Penates, the statues of the household gods.


title: Piety

text: In addressing whether children have an obligation to provide support for their parents, Aquinas quotes, Cicero, "..."piety gives both duty and homage": "duty" referring to service, and "homage" to reverence or honor." Filial piety is central to Confucian ethics; reverence for parents is considered in Chinese ethics the prime virtue and the basis of all right human relations.


title: Piety

text: In Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism, piety is one of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. "It engenders in the soul a filial respect for God, a generous love toward him, and an affectionate obedience that wants to do what he commands because it loves the one who commands." St. Gregory the Great, in demonstrating the interrelationship among the gifts, said "Through the fear of the Lord, we rise to piety, from piety then to knowledge..."


title: Piety

text: Aquinas spoke of piety in the context of one's parents and country, and given the obligation to accord each what is rightfully due them, related it to the cardinal virtue of justice. (By analogy, rendering to God what is due him, Aquinas identified as the virtue of religion, also related to justice.) Professor Richard McBrien said of piety that, "It is a gift of the Holy Spirit by which we are motivated and enabled to be faithful and respectful to those -- ultimately, God -- who have had a positive, formative influence on our lives and to whom we owe a debt of gratitude," and requires one to acknowledge, to the extent possible, the sources of those many blessings through words and gestures great and small.


title: Piety

text: Piety belongs to the virtue of Religion, which the concordant judgment of theologians put among the moral virtues, as a part of the cardinal virtue Justice, since by it one tenders to God what is due to him. The gift of piety perfects the virtue of justice, enabling the individual to fulfill his obligations to God and neighbor, and to do so willingly and joyfully. By inspiring a person with a tender and filial confidence in God, the gift of piety makes them joyfully embrace all that pertains to His service.


title: Piety

text: John Calvin said, "I call ‘piety’ that reverence joined with love of God which the knowledge of his benefits induces. For until [people] recognize that they owe everything to God, that they are nourished by his fatherly care, that he is the Author of their every good, that they should seek nothing beyond him—they will never yield him willing service." (Institutes, I.ii.1) Bishop Pierre Whalon says that "Piety, therefore, is the pursuit of an ever-greater sense of being in the presence of God."


title: Piety

text: The Gift of Piety is synonymous with of filial trust in God. Through piety, a person shows reverence for God as a loving Father, and respect for others as children of God.


title: Piety

text: Pope John Paul II defined piety as "the gift of reverence for what comes from God," and related it to his earlier lectures on the Theology of the Body. In a General Audience in June 2014, Pope Francis said, "When the Holy Spirit helps us sense the presence of the Lord and all of his love for us, it warms our heart and drives us almost naturally to prayer and celebration." "Piety", said Pope Francis, points up "our friendship with God." It is a gift that enables people to serve their neighbor "with gentleness and with a smile."


title: Piety

text: Expressions of piety vary according to country and local tradition. "Feast days", with their preparations for various religious celebrations and activities, have contributed much in forging the traditions peculiar to a given community. Many of pious exercises are part of the cultic patrimony of particular Churches or religious families. Devotions help incorporate faith into daily life.


title: Piety

text: Popular piety "...manifests a thirst for God which only the simple and poor can know. It makes people capable of generosity and sacrifice even to the point of heroism, when it is a question of manifesting belief. It involves an acute awareness of profound attributes of God: fatherhood, providence, loving and constant presence. It engenders interior attitudes rarely observed to the same degree elsewhere: patience, the sense of the cross in daily life, detachment, openness to others, devotion. By reason of these aspects, we readily call it "popular piety," that is, religion of the people, rather than religiosity.


title: Piety

text: "They are the manifestation of a theological life nourished by the working of the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5)."


title: Piety

text: While acknowledging that Anglican piety took the forms of more frequent communion and liturgical observances and customs, Bishop Ronald Williams spoke for increased reading of the Bible.


title: Piety

text: In the Methodist Church, works of piety are a means of grace. They can be personal, such as reading, prayer, and meditation; or communal, such as sharing in the sacraments or Bible study. For Presbyterians, piety refers to a whole realm of practices—such as worship, prayer, singing, and service—that help shape and guide the way one's reverence and love for God are expressed; and "the duty of the Christian to live a life of piety in accordance with God’s moral law".


title: Piety

text: The veneration of sacred images belongs to the very nature of Catholic piety, with the understanding that "the honour rendered to the image is directed to the person represented".


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: The republican insurgency in Afghanistan is an ongoing armed conflict between the National Resistance Front and allied groups which fight under the banner of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on one side, and the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the state controlled by the Taliban) on the other side. On 17 August 2021, former first vice president of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh declared himself the "caretaker" president of Afghanistan and announced the resistance. On 26 August, a brief ceasefire was declared. On 1 September, talks broke down and fighting resumed as the Taliban attacked resistance positions.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: , in addition to the opposition in the Panjshir, there were also districts in the centre of Afghanistan that still resisted the Taliban, supported by ethnic and religious minorities. On 6 September, the Taliban took control of most of the Panjshir province, with resistance fighters retreating to the mountains to continue fighting within the province. Clashes in the valley mostly ceased mid-September, while resistance leaders Amrullah Saleh and Ahmad Massoud fled to neighboring Tajikistan. Despite these developments, NRF holdouts continued to fight, still waging a guerrilla campaign in several provinces including Baghlan, Balkh, Badakhshan, and Faryab by early 2022. In addition, an independent anti-Taliban militia still held territory in Samangan Province as of December 2021.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Historically, the Panjshir Valley was known for its natural defences. Surrounded by the Hindu Kush mountains, Panjshir never fell to the Soviets during the invasion of the 1980s nor to the Taliban during the civil war of the early 1990s. In the war of 1996–2001, Panjshir was a center of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. In these conflicts, Panjshir was under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud who was killed by a suicide bomber in 2001. Soon after, the United States invasion of Afghanistan resulted in the overthrow of the previously dominant, Taliban-led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the eventual establishment of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Massoud and his family remained highly respected in Panjshir in the next two decades.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: The traditional anti-Taliban sentiment of the Panjshiris has an ethnic dimension: A majority of the population of the Panjshir Valley are ethnic Tajik people, while the majority of the Taliban are Pashtuns. However, these ethnic differences became less pronounced in course of the Taliban insurgency, as the Taliban began to recruit Tajiks into their ranks.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: In 2021, the Taliban overran most of Afghanistan in a lightning offensive; Panjshir Province was the only area which was able to resist until the offensive's conclusion. However, the valley's ability to withstand future Taliban assaults was hampered by it being cut off from outside support. In the 1980s and 1990s, Panjshir's forces had been able to keep supply lines to Tajikistan open. These were not accessible in the 2021 conflict, as the Taliban had successfully taken most of northern Afghanistan. Regardless, the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan initially continued to exercise "de facto" control over the Panjshir Valley, which was described by "The Week" as "the only region out of [the] Taliban's hands" as of August 2021. Former loyalists to the old republic fled to Panjshir, hoping to transform it into an anti-Taliban stronghold.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 17 August 2021, Saleh—citing provisions of the Constitution of Afghanistan—declared himself President of Afghanistan from the Panjshir Valley, and vowed to continue military operations against the Taliban from there. His claim to the presidency was endorsed by Ahmad Massoud and Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Minister of Defence Bismillah Khan Mohammadi along with the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Dushanbe. On 23 August 2021, Massoud made contact with unnamed American lawmakers.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Prior to the fall of Kabul, Panjshiris began moving military equipment from surrounding areas, including helicopters and armored vehicles, into Panjshir Province. There, they were joined by Afghan National Army commanders and soldiers, including commandos, ex-Mujahideen who had previously served Ahmad Massoud's late father, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and other anti-Taliban activists. Most of them regrouped at Baghlan Province's Andarab District before moving to Panjshir after making their escape from Kunduz, Badakhshan, Takhar, and Baghlan. According to a Russian estimate, the disparate Anti-Taliban forces had approximately 7,000 personnel under arms as of mid August 2021. Other estimates place this number as low as 2,000, though Saleh himself claims 10,000 men under arms. By 22 August 2021, Ahmad Massoud claimed to have gathered about 9,000 fighters and at least a "handful of armoured humvees" in the valley.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: The republican forces in Panjshir organized as National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF). Within the NRF, there were differences between the forces loyal to Saleh and those loyal to Ahmad Massoud, as the former is hardcore anti-Taliban and anti-Pakistani, whereas the latter maintained good relations with Pakistan which was supportive of the Taliban. As a result, Massoud was more willing to negotiate with the Taliban. By 22 August, the resistance also confirmed that several local militias had begun to fight the Taliban on their own, independent of the Panjshir-based forces. According to Yasin Zia, the resistance has already secured access to five helicopters formerly used by the Afghan military. The NRF was greatly weakened by the fall of most of Panjshir to Taliban troops in September 2021, though the group continued to operate and expanded its activity across northern Afghanistan over the next months. By April 2022, the NRF was estimated to field a few thousand fighters, split into several branches such as the Andarab Resistance Front.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Other pro-republican insurgent groups emerged after the fall of Panjshir. These included the "Ahmad Khan Samangani Front", Afghanistan Freedom Front, "Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation Movement", the "High Council of National Resistance", the "Freedom Corps", "Liberation Front of Afghanistan", "Soldiers of Hazaristan", the "Freedom and Democracy Front", the "Wolf Unit", "National Front for Free Afghanistan", and the "Turkestan Freedom Tigers".


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: An estimate by the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy made prior to the fall of Kabul estimated the strength of the Taliban, throughout the whole of Afghanistan, at 60,000 armed cadre supported by up to 200,000 irregulars. Due to the rapid capitulation of the Afghan National Army, the Taliban have since acquired substantial materiel of US manufacture, including armored vehicles and combat aircraft. The Taliban remain a movement consisting of many different sub-groups whose aims, strategies, beliefs, and loyalties vary.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: By March 2022, the armed Forces of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan had become increasingly professional, reorganized into corps and deploying their own air force -consisting of helicopters- in combat against the republican rebels.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Around 17 August 2021, remnants of the Afghan National Army began massing in the Panjshir Valley at the urging of Massoud, along with local civilians who had responded to his mobilization calls. At the time, the Panjshir Valley was—according to one observer—"under siege on all sides" but had not come under direct attack. On 18 August, the number of admissions for war injuries was increasing at the Emergency Surgical Centre for War Victims in Anaba in Panjshir. By 22 August, Ahmad Massoud's forces were mostly focused on defending Panjshir as well as training.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 17 August, a negotiated end to the political impasse had been attempted, with Saleh calling for a "peace deal" with the Taliban. On 18 August, the possibility of including the Taliban in a coalition government was raised by a top Afghan diplomat as a means of ending the stalemate.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 18 August, local sources from Parwan Province reported that Saleh's forces had taken Charikar from Taliban fighters stationed in the area. In addition, there are reports of gunfights taking place near Salang Pass. On the following day, videos were released which showcased local fighters with flags of the old, anti-Taliban Northern Alliance parading through the streets of Charikar.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 20 August, anti-Taliban fighters reportedly recaptured Andarab, Puli Hisar and Dih Salah districts in Baghlan Province with the Taliban claiming 15 of its soldiers had been killed, while other sources reported that up to 60 Taliban fighters were killed or injured, and two dozen captured. The three districts had reportedly experienced a revolt, led by a local police chief, after Taliban had conducted unpopular house-to-house searches. Bismillah Khan Mohammadi announced the operational success of the districts being recaptured via Twitter.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Audiovisual reports of the events circulated on social media and were reported by Pajhwok Afghan News. Later on the 20th, it was reported that the forces, led by Abdul Hamid Dadgar, had recaptured Andarab, though the Taliban had not yet commented.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 21 August, it was reported that Panjshir representatives were meeting with Abdullah Abdullah and Hamid Karzai, members of the Coordination Council, to "discuss the current situation and ways of providing security to Afghans".


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: A source within the Panjshir resistance consequently confirmed their involvement in the operations in Baghlan Province, and stated that they planned on seizing a northern highway which could allow them to link up with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Taliban social media accounts called the counteroffensive a "betrayal" of the amnesty the Taliban had offered. It was reported on 22 August 2021 that Taliban fighters had been sent to the Keshnabad area of Andarab in order to kidnap the children of anti-Taliban forces.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 22 August, the Russian Embassy in Afghanistan was reportedly asked by a Taliban representative to reach out to Panjshir-based leaders to possibly mediate. Meanwhile, resistance spokesman Ali Maisam Nazary informed the Agence France-Presse that Ahmad Massoud's group would prefer a peaceful resolution of the conflict, under the condition that a future government implemented a system of "decentralisation" and "equal rights" across the country. On 23 August, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that while Taliban fighters are being sent to Panjshir, the Taliban are willing to seek peaceful means to end the conflict.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Simultaneously, the Taliban gave the opposition forces a four-hour ultimatum to surrender. In a statement to Al Arabiya, Massoud rejected the ultimatum. In response, the Taliban announced "hundreds" of its forces had been dispatched to the Panjshir Valley. It was reported on 23 August that talks between Taliban representatives and Panjshir leaders had broken down. Ali Maisam Nazary, spokesman for the resistance, said that the Taliban made demands for Massoud to accept no elections with a centralized government, which Massoud rejected as he wanted a future government to be decentralized, with respect for civil and semi-autonomy rights.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: An unidentified Taliban spokesperson proclaimed in a statement that "hundreds of Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are heading towards the state of Panjshir to control it, after local state officials refused to hand it over peacefully". It was reported that on 23 August, Taliban commander Qari Fashihuddin was tasked to lead offensive operations in Panjshir. The Taliban reported that several of their fighters were killed and others wounded in ambushes in Jabal Siraj.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 23 August, the Taliban claimed to have recaptured all 3 districts in Baghlan that fell to the resistance forces a week ago: Dih Salah District, Pul-e-Hisar and Andarab. A Taliban district chief stationed in Andarab was reported to be killed in the fighting. On 24 August, Panjshir resistance fighters reportedly retook control of Banu and Dih Salah districts, while Puli Hisar remained under Taliban control. Saleh publicly warned via Twitter that Taliban fighters in Andarab were blocking humanitarian assistance for civilians trying to escape from the fighting and called it a "humanitarian disaster". On the following day, Massoud's forces claimed to have ambushed a Taliban convoy in Andarab, destroying a critical bridge and inflicting heavy losses on the Islamists.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 24 August, Major Wazir Akbar, an ex-Afghan commando who joined the Panjshir-based resistance fighters, reported an attempted Taliban incursion at Anjuman Pass through Badakhshan province, which was repelled with heavy Taliban casualties.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 26 August 2021, a ceasefire was declared with the Taliban and the resistance entering into talks. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that he was "80 percent confident of a solution without war in the Panjshir Valley". On 29 August, Panjshir representatives stated that there were no Taliban fighters trying to enter Panjshir, refuting information from Anaamullah Samangani, who is a member of the Taliban's Cultural Commission. On 1 September, it was reported that ceasefire talks failed.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 26 August, according to a video published by Global Defense Corp, heavy fighting had broken out between anti-Taliban fighters in Panjshir Valley and the Taliban. It was reported that more than 200 Taliban fighters were driven out the Panjshir Valley, with some being captured by anti-Taliban forces. The National Resistance Front (NRF) was also able to capture Pol-e-Hesar, Deh Salah and Banu districts.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 28 August, Panjshir fighters engaged Taliban fighters in Sanjan, Kapisa and in Khost Wa Fereng, Baghlan in response to allegations of ceasefire violations conducted by Taliban fighters in the area.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 29 August, internet and telecommunication services throughout Panjshir province were shut down on orders from the Taliban.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 30 August, Panjshir fighters ambushed Taliban fighters attempting to break into Panjshir from Andarab.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 31 August 2021, Taliban fighters commenced an offensive against the National Resistance Front in the provinces of Baghlan, Panjshir, and Parwan. Anti-Taliban sources claimed that the offensive involved al-Qaeda troops, a statement backed by videos in which pro-Taliban fighters were heard speaking non-native or locally uncommon languages such as Arabic. Sources reported that the offensive started when Taliban fighters were spotted entering Gulbahar and blocked the main road with a container. Taliban forces retook Dih Saleh District in Baghlan, allowing them to directly attack Panjshir. An initial Taliban assault through Khawak Pass connecting the Baghlan and central Panjshir Provinces failed. NRFA spokesperson Fahim Dashty said that the attack was likely done to test the area's defenses. Taliban troops also began to attack southern Panjshir from Gulbahar, resulting in heavy fighting. Despite being numerically superior to the defenders, the Taliban failed to break through. A refugee interviewed later by Al Jazeera stated that the Taliban had blocked roads out of Panjshir using shipping containers during their offensive, and the shutdown of internet connections and mobile phone services left residents unable to learn what was happening in other places.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 1 September, a day after clashes at the entry points of the valley were reported, Mullah Amir Khan Motaqi, the head of the Taliban's commission for guidance & encouragement stated over a Twitter audio message to the people of Panjshir that attempts at reaching a negotiated settlement were "unfortunately all in vain." He lay the blame with the leadership of the resistance in Panjshir, saying there are still some people in the valley who "don't want the problems to be solved peacefully." He went on to say that Taliban has selected a native of the province as their desired governor. Despite the Taliban shutdown of Panjshir's internet, Fahim Dashti, the spokesperson for the Panjshir Resistance managed to conduct an interview with BBC Persian, in which he stated that the negotiations failed because of a fundamental difference of goals between the two sides. According to him, Panjshir resistance had the intention of extracting commitments and guarantees protecting freedoms and human and political rights of ethnic and religious minorities as well as women, but Taliban's goal in the negotiation was not to negotiate such guarantees, but to negotiate the extent of participation of the Panjshir opposition in a Taliban-led government that would satisfy the resistance.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 2 September, Panjshir sources claimed that 13 Taliban fighters were killed in an ambush in Chikrinow district. Even though the offensive had stalled by this point, a Taliban spokesman said the valley was surrounded in all four directions and that a Panjshir resistance 'victory was impossible' as well as claiming Taliban territorial gains. Meanwhile, the Taliban claimed to have pushed into the Shotul district of Panjshir, but provided no firm proof for this claim. Analysts judged that the Taliban had probably advanced for a short time before being pushed back again. A minor Taliban attack on Anjuman Pass in northern Panjshir was reportedly easily repelled by Afghan commandos. In addition, local anti-Taliban forces from Andarab claimed to have retaken the crucial Khawak Pass.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Meanwhile, revolts had erupted in Wardak Province and Daikundi Province which are home to many Hazaras, an ethnic group which had been previously discriminated against by the Taliban. The Taliban had begun reaching out to the Hazara community in the months leading up to their takeover, promising to respect their rights and traditions. Accordingly, the situation in Wardak and Daikundi is complex, as local militia leaders had aided the Taliban takeover despite the disapproval of much of the population. In Daikundi's Khadir District, a revolt erupted as the pro-Taliban Hazara commander Muhammad Ali Sedaqat was ordered to disarm locals, with some fearing that the disarmament was not properly recorded and would expose locals to harassment by the Taliban. Fighting consequently broke out between the Taliban, pro-republic Hazaras, and pro-Taliban Hazaras. Local militias began to ambush Taliban troops.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 3 September, the Taliban claimed to have captured Panjshir valley, however these claims were described as lies and propaganda by the local resistance leaders such as Saleh as well as international spectators. A NRF spokesperson stated that the situation was "difficult", but also that a Taliban push into the valley had resulted in the encirclement of a few hundred Taliban fighters. By the following day, heavy fighting was confirmed to be still continuing in the valley, with Paryan District reportedly being contested. An Italian medical aid organisation operating in the area confirmed that the Taliban had advanced up to Anaba; the Taliban claimed to have seized the districts of Khenj and Unabah. The NRF countered by claiming that they had managed to encircle even more Taliban troops, now numbering thousands, at Khawak Pass and Dashte Rewak.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 5 September, both sides achieved some successes: The NRF was able to force hundreds of encircled Taliban fighters to surrender in the valley, with the NRF claiming to have captured up to 1,500. In turn, local journalists confirmed that the Taliban had taken both Rukha and Paryan Districts, while NRF spokesman Fahim Dashty was killed in combat. The Taliban also claimed to have advanced into Panjshir's capital Bazarak. A "The Times" reporter who accompanied the Taliban testified that much of the valley appeared to be under Islamist control at this point, although groups of NRF fighters continued to strike at the Taliban behind the frontlines. Massoud reacted to the Taliban advance by declaring on Facebook that he was endorsing offers by local religious leaders to negotiate a peaceful solution of the conflict. Pakistani journalist and regional expert Ahmed Rashid argued that the Taliban had clearly expressed that they would not "tolerate what [Massoud is] asking for, which is a semi-autonomous region in the Panjshir Valley". The Taliban leadership indeed rejected Massoud's negotiation offer, stating that it would only accept the NRF's surrender.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 6 September, after heavy fighting resulting in high losses on both sides, the Taliban captured the governor's office in Bazarak, and claimed control of the whole Panjshir Valley. The remaining NRF troops had reportedly retreated into the mountains, with the Taliban stating that many had fled the region. An NRF official then claimed Massoud was at a safe location, while Saleh escaped to Tajikistan. Ali Nazary, head of foreign affairs for the resistance group, said that Ahmed Massoud was still present inside Afghanistan. The NRF contested the Taliban's conquest of Panjshir, arguing that resistance fighters were still present in strategic positions in the valley, continuing their fight.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: By 7 September, many civilians from Panjshir Valley had fled into the mountains to escape the Taliban, while Massoud made defiant statements and called for a large-scale, nation-wide uprising. The Panjshir locals were also threatened by starvation, as local supply remained cut-off. The remaining NRF troops were reportedly still resisting the Taliban in some areas. The NRF also claimed that the Taliban had begun to massacre local civilians.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: As of 9 September, OSINT evidence analyzed by "Bellingcat" researchers shows that the Taliban continue to advance, and control territory at least into the valley. The Taliban has placed the valley under siege, not allowing journalists or goods to enter, so the extent of their control is difficult to surmise. Panjshir residents who were able to reach Kabul warned that supplies in the province are being exhausted due to the blockade. NRF spokesman Ali Nazary claimed that the Taliban had not conquered all of Panjshir, but only the main road, which allowed them to capture nearby Bazarak as well. He stated that the resistance forces had made a tactical withdrawal from the main road, while retaining 60–65% of the sub-valleys and strategic positions under their control. Mohammad Zahir Aghbar, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's ambassador to Tajikistan, meanwhile stated that Massoud and Saleh were still in Afghanistan but for security reasons and had not fled to Tajikistan, contrary to earlier reports.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: By 10 September, the Taliban had captured the residence where Saleh had earlier been hiding and aired his latest video claiming he was still in Panjshir, with photos of a Taliban fighter posing at the same spot where Saleh had recorded the video, being posted on social media it was later claimed that Rohullah Saleh, Amrullah's brother, was killed while trying to escape the region. A three-day ceasefire was reported to be in effect, although not confirmed by any side. National Congress Party leader Abdul Latif Pedram meanwhile told TOLO News that NRF forces were present in all mountains of Panjshir. NRF commander Saleh Rigistani vowed that their forces will continue fighting, and added that the province was facing a shortage of food and medicinal supplies. Taliban Cultural Commission member Anaamullah Samangani however claimed that the NRF had no "public presence" in Panjshir and were hiding in caves and valleys, with talks for their surrender ongoing. Residents meanwhile complained that roads in Panjshir were blocked, while electricity and telecommunications were shut.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: A tribal elder meanwhile stated on 10 September that the Taliban was blocking food supplies and carrying out extrajudicial executions of civilians, adding that eight civilians were reportedly killed by them on 7 September. Ahmad Wali Massoud also accused the Taliban of killing civilians and stated that the NRF still controlled "major areas" in Panjshir. Saleh's son Shuresh stated on 11 September that his father's brother Rohullah Azizi, who had been fighting for the resistance, had been executed alongside his driver on 9 September by the Taliban, after being stopped at a checkpoint in Khanez village of Panjshir.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Also on 11 September, Tasnim News Agency reporters were allowed into Panjshir. They met with a group of Red Unit Taliban fighters who claimed that all of Panjshir was captured and resistance forces may have taken shelter in nearby mountainous areas. They also claimed that the situation was calm despite the expiration of the reported ceasefire. Many civilians were seen fleeing the area fearing of renewed clashes. Reporters also interviewed a NRF supporter who blamed the Taliban for not establishing an inclusive government. He also claimed that the Pakistan Air Force had helped the Taliban.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: An investigative report published by the BBC on 13 September found that the Taliban had executed at least 20 civilians in Panjshir since they entered the valley. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid meanwhile denied the group had committed any human rights violation in the province. Agence France-Presse reporters allowed into Panjshir on 15 September found many villages in the three districts they visited nearly empty. Residents interviewed by them accused the Taliban of executing 19 civilians between the village of Khenj and Bazarak, and preventing civilians from fleeing the province in order to use them as human shields against attacks by resistance fighters. A doctor in Panjshir meanwhile told Al Jazeera that all hospitals in the province had been closed or were operating on limited supplies, except for an Italian-run emergency hospital.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Journalists of "The New York Times" allowed into Panjshir on 13 September reported that fighting had mostly ceased, as the Taliban controlled much of the valley and the NRF was apparently limited to the nearly inaccessible mountain areas. Some local forces had also left the NRF without surrendering to the Taliban, instead acting as autonomous self-defense groups and controlling parts of the valley. In late September, a United States intelligence official, a US Department of Defense consultant, and two former Afghan government officials confirmed that Massoud and Saleh had fled to Tajikistan shortly after the Taliban took control of most of the valley. Massoud was relocated to a safe house in Dushanbe and Saleh to a nearby location. Regional experts argued that the reports of the exile of the NRF leadership were reliable and believable. Massoud, Saleh, Pedram, and others were reportedly attempting to organize further anti-Taliban resistance from Tajikistan. However, researchers judged their future prospects to be poor, as Tajikistan was supportive of them but probably unwilling to risk cross-border fighting, while the Taliban had managed to gain much international support, entrenching their position. Despite these reports, the NRF continued to claim that its leaders were still in Panjshir, and that the insurgency was continuing.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 6 October, Abdul Latif Pedram claimed that guerilla warfare continues in Panjshir. TASS reported heavy fighting at Zamankur, Anaba District. By early November 2021, analyst Jacob Zenn argued that there were no more militant forces loyal to Massoud operating in Afghanistan, while the NRF continued its efforts to reorganize an insurgency. The government of Tajikistan was still hosting and supporting the remnants of the anti-Taliban political opposition, although more so to improve its image abroad and domestically than to actually influence the situation in Afghanistan. At this point, the only substantial armed resistance to the Taliban government was offered by the Islamic State's Khorasan Province (IS-KP). Analyst Jacob Zenn argued that IS-KP's insurgency was growing and could potentially allow pro-republican forces to make a comeback as the Taliban and the Islamic State were focused on fighting each other. However, some NRF holdouts continued to be active in Panjshir. On 15 October, Russian news agency Interfax reported NRF forces conducting a guerilla attack in Andarab, Baghlan, with Taliban losses being reported as six killed, four wounded, and two being captured by pro-NRF forces. At the same time, fighting was also reported in Balkh, with both sides suffering unknown casualties. Around late October, a visit by Radio Télévision Suisse into Bazarak would report an armed confrontation between the Taliban and pro-NRF forces occurring in an undisclosed location in the mountains surrounding Bazarak. The latter reportedly gained the upper hand with unknown casualties on both sides, thus confirming that the NRF is still active near Bazarak and in Panjshir despite claims of inactivity by local Taliban officials.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 12 November 2021, clashes between republicans and Taliban forces took place at Khoshudara, located in Baghlan Province's Khost wa Fereng District. Both sides suffered several losses. A local informed "The Independent" that the NRF still held settlements in Khost wa Fereng.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 29 November, a clash between Taliban and pro-NRF forces reportedly occurred in Samangan Province, with reportedly two republican fighters killed and one wounded from the engagement. "The Independent" reported that according to local sources a militia of 400 men took control of the mountainous area of Tondruk including 10 villages, located between the Hazrati Sultan District and the provincial capital of Aybak. The same source reported that in October, local Taliban officials attempted to take over the area, although the attack was called off due to the harsh terrain of the region and the military readiness of the local pro-NRF militia. The Samangan militia became known as the "Ahmad Khan Samangani Front", and consisted of several groups which were loyal to a commander named Hekmatullah Tour. The group was not part of the NRF, though aligned with it.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 6 and 7 December, NRF and Taliban forces clashed in the Hesa Duwum Kohistan District of Kapisa Province, with five Taliban militants killed or wounded, and two NRF killed (according to Mehr News Agency). Islamic World News had reported that according to local sources, NRF forces under the command of Hamed Seifi, General Kouhestani, General Hasibullah and General Munib Amiri, have been carrying out hit and run attacks against Taliban militants in the mountainous areas of Panjshir, Kapisa and Baghlan provinces. They also reported that an assassination of a Taliban member in the Kalafgan District of Takhar Province initially thought to have been carried out by ISKP, might have been perpetrated by the NRF, although the true perpetrators are yet to be confirmed.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 20 December, a member of the NRF in Baghlan reported to "The Independent" that the local resistance attacked Taliban positions in the village of Kaftarkhaneh, with the Taliban being driven out of the village and suffering 8 casualties, with four killed and four more wounded. NRF spokesman Sibghatullah Ahmadi would go on to confirm the engagement, also stating that pro-resistance forces had conducted attacks in Badghis Province on the same day, with unknown casualties. The spokesman also claimed on 17 December that the NRF had conducted attacks in 14 Afghan provinces (Kabul, Kapisa, Samangan, Takhar, Parwan, Badghis, Laghman, Balkh, Faryab, Ghazni, Ghor, Herat, Nangarhar, and Kunar provinces), killing 61 Taliban fighters within the last 8 days, while allegedly suffering 43 casualties with one dead and 42 wounded, alleging that more pro-NRF guerilla organizations will "soon announce their presence".


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 26 December, hundreds of civilians from Anaba district, Panjshir went out to protest in response to the killing of Mohammad Agha by Taliban-affiliated militants. The victim was allegedly not associated with the National Resistance Front, however some reports stated that he served as a police officer in the previous Afghan government, who returned to his home believing in the promise of amnesty for those associated with the previous government given by the Taliban after the Fall of Kabul. Local Taliban officials confirmed the killing, claiming it was a misunderstanding, while promising to prosecute the perpetrators of the killing. In response to the killing, hundreds of civilians marched to the governor's office, chanting anti-Taliban slogans like "death to the Taliban" and "long live Ahmad Massoud". While the motives for the killing of Mohammad Agha have not been confirmed, the Taliban had been engaging in numerous summary executions and forced disappearances of former members of Afghan security forces, with the victim count being over 100 as of November, 2021, contrary to the promise of amnesty given to former government associates by the Taliban. The incident also allegedly occurred days after an attack conducted by the NRF in Panjshir against the Taliban. The deputy chief of security of Panjshir Abdul Hamid Khorasani was reported to have clashed with the protesters, although no casualties were reported.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 2 January 2022, "The Independent" reported that in the preceding few days, the Ahmad Khan Samangani Front clashed in the village of Kichi Manghar in the Hazrati Sultan district of Samangan, killing at least two members of the Taliban including a commander, while one of the militia's commanders was killed by the Taliban in the engagement. According to the source, a few hours after the end of the clash, Taliban forces attacked the village of Kichi Mungar and killed two of Abdul Halim's relatives who were not associated with the militia. There were also reports of fighting between the NRF and the Taliban in the Ishkamish District, Takhar Province, with one Taliban and one NRF member being killed in the village of Elich during the clashes. The Taliban has so far refused to comment on the attack.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Talks between NRF and Taliban representatives were held in Tehran, Iran on 8 and 9 January, but were ultimately unproductive. On 12 January, Taliban security forces arrested Makhdum Alem, a long-time Uzbek Taliban commander. This sparked protests and a short-lived revolt at Maymana, as his supporters temporarily seized the city. After four days of negotiations, the uprising ended and the locals reaccepted Taliban rule, although Alem remained under arrest. Observers believed the short-lived revolt was a sign of the remaining tensions between the northern ethnic groups and the Pashtun-dominated Taliban, with even Uzbek as well as Tajik Taliban suspicious of the government.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 21 January, the Taliban leadership announced that its security forces had killed eight resistance fighters in a clash in Balkh Province, and seized their munitions. Three days later, a battle between the NRF and Taliban erupted in Baghlan's Khost wa Fereng District. Both sides lost several fighters, with the Taliban reportedly trying to arrest suspected pro-NRF civilians and besieging the village of Kazar. By the end of January, local media claimed that NRF guerrillas were still operating and occasionally attacking Taliban groups in the provinces of Baghlan, Balkh, Badakhshan, and Faryab. In contrast, combat was no longer reported in Panjshir at the time.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 13 February, a group affiliated with the NRF announced its existence in Farah Province, one of the first pro-NRF groups to emerge in a predominantly Pashtun province. It is commanded by Idris Mobarez, who is the son of Mohammad Salim Mobarez, a former commander of Ahmad Shah Massoud. Around that time, the NRF had increased its attacks against the Taliban. On 19 February, fighting resumed in Panjshir as NRF-aligned forces launched a missile attack into Darah, while pro-NRF troops located in the mountains of Panjshir clashed with local Taliban forces. The latter confirmed the engagement, but did not provide any further details. At the same time, local Afghan media had reported that the Taliban had launched air and ground attacks against resistance positions in the Andarab District, with unknown casualties.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 16 February, the Afghanistan Islamic National & Liberation movement announced its existence, which is believed to be the only Pashtun-led anti-Taliban insurgent group so far. It is led by former Afghan Army special forces commander Abdul Mateen Sulaimankhail. On 13 April, in an interview with the Afghanistan International TV network, Sulaimankhail claimed his group was engaged in "military and political activities" in 26 out of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, although researchers questioned that claim. The group was most likely responsible for the assassination of Taliban commander Maulvi Hanzala in Lashkargah, Helmand Province on 13 March.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 12 March, a new anti-Taliban insurgent and civil group, the Afghanistan Freedom Front (AFF), had emerged, after reports of its existence started circulating in early February 2022. The group is separate from the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan, and mainly composed of former Afghan soldiers. As of early March, the AFF had already launched ambushes in Baghlan, Kapisa, Parwan, and Panjshir, with the Taliban reportedly using heavy weapons and air operations to suppress AFF-aligned resistance cells.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 22 April, two people including the nephew of Atta Muhammad Nur were killed in a firefight in Balkh against local Taliban forces. This incident was possibly connected to the emergence of the "High Council of National Resistance", a rebel group which was reportedly led by Nur, and backed by many former anti-Taliban warlords and politicians such as Abdul Rashid Dostum, Muhammad Mohaqiq, and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf. The "High Council" received support from NRF leader Ahmad Massoud.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 30 April, NRF forces led by Khari Mohammad Andarabi carried out attacks against Taliban bases in the villages of Taghanak and Paskundi in the Pul-e-Hesar district, in the Andharab region of Baghlan. Casualties were reported on both sides, with 11 Taliban fighters and one NRF commander, Sabzali Andarabi, killed in the fighting, according to "Hasht-e Subh Daily". Over the preceding weeks, the NRF had carried out attacks across the northern provinces.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 6 May 2022, the NRF launched an offensive, reportedly capturing three districts in Panjshir Province. The NRF spokesman Ali Nazary stated that the NRF had taken control of the three district's roads, villages, and outposts, after which they besieged the local Taliban offices. He also stated that "Many Taliban fighters have asked for time to surrender. The enemy has suffered heavy casualties." Taliban officials denied any fighting in the area. Local Panjshir residents reported heavy fighting during the night. The NRF also stated that the group would continue their presence across 12 provinces, mostly in the north. Approximately 30 Taliban fighters had been killed in the NRF offensive as of 12 May. The Taliban subsequently sent reinforcements from other provinces to bolster their garrisons in Panjshir. Fighting was concentrated at Abdullah Khel which the NRF temporarily seized before retreating. On 17 May, the first meeting of the Supreme Council of National Resistance took place in Ankara, Turkey with Abdul Rashid Dostum being involved.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 31 May, four NRF fighters were executed by the Taliban in the Tagab District, Badakhshan, while destroying an NRF hideout in the district according to Taliban security officials.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: By early June, NRF guerrilla attacks in Panjshir were taking place "regular[ly]" or "nearly daily". Despite the growing number of losses on both sides, the Taliban still claimed that there was no more resistance in the valley, even as they sent up to 10,000 reinforcements to strengthen their positions in Panjshir. The NRF claimed that it had expanded its operations into 12 provinces. However, researcher Roshni Kapur argued that the different anti-Taliban rebel groups were still too fractured and divided to pose an existential threat to the Taliban government.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 10 June, local sources reported heavy clashes in the Karaman valley area in Dara District, Panjshir between the NRF and the Taliban, after the latter attacked several positions of the former. It occurred after a "two-day break" in the fighting. No casualties were reported in that instance. Two days prior, a clash occurred in the Paryan district, Panjshir, with reportedly 20 Taliban fighters and one NRF fighter killed.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 11 June 2022, a Hazara Taliban commander, Mehdi Mujahid, rebelled against the Islamic Emirate, citing anti-Hazara policies by the Taliban. As Mehdi Mujahid's forces controlled Balkhab District, the entire district consequently passed under insurgent control. Pro-republican forces, including the NRF, voiced support for Mehdi Mujahid's forces. In the following weeks, Taliban forces repeatedly attempted to retake Balkhab, but were repelled. On 16 June 2022, the NRF shot down a Taliban Mil Mi-17 in the Arezoo valley. During the shootdown of the helicopter, NRF fighters killed two Taliban fighters and captured four more. By 25 June, according to anti-Taliban sources, Mehdi Mujahid's forces had surrounded "hundreds of Taliban fighters" in the Bakhlab district, with dozens of Taliban fighters killed or wounded during the preceding days. By the end of June, NRF attacks were confirmed in Badakhshan, Kabul, Panjshir, Kapisa, and Takhar Provinces. The Taliban imposed a blockade on Kohistan District, Kapisa, as the NRF had launched an offensive there. Besides Mehdi Mujahid's rebellion, clashes between different Taliban factions were also reported in Baghlan, Bamyan, and Faryab Provinces.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Between 16 and 17 June, the Taliban carried out multiple operations against NRF bases in Rokha, Anaba, and Shotul districts. In the Chamalwarda area of Rokha district alone, 51 Taliban fighters were killed or wounded, while two NRF fighters were killed and another wounded.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 22 June, an audio tape was published in which the Taliban acting minister of defence Mullah Yaqoob mentioned that several Taliban outposts in the Khavash valley in the Khost wa Fereng District were evacuated and capture by NRF forces, while complaining about the Taliban's purported lack of obedience and organization.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 8 July, NRF fighters engaged Taliban forces in the Khost district, Baghlan and took control of several areas. On 10 July, NRF forces attacked a Taliban outpost in Baghlan, killing two Taliban fighters and destroying a military vehicle.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Sometime around early July, the Taliban captured Golwarz village near Bakhlab as part of a general campaign against the Bakhlab insurgents. Several war crimes were reportedly committed by the Taliban against the mostly Hazara population throughout the campaign, causing refugees to flee to neighboring provinces.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: Starting on 13 July, the Taliban and the NRF clashed in the Khenj and Shotul Districts of Panjshir. On 16 July, a planned offensive by the Taliban in the Arzoo valley of the Shotul district was met with an NRF counterattack led by Haseeb Qowai Markaz, which resulted in 12 Taliban dead and 9 wounded. This came after the Taliban had reportedly launched several attacks on NRF positions in the valley, only to be repelled by NRF forces.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 16 July, fighting flared up in the Qasan valley of Andarab as part of a series of clashes in Baghlan province. By the next day, the Taliban reportedly lost 17 fighters with 10 more injured, while NRF casualties were not reported besides three being injured. Fighting would continue up to 21 July, during which Taliban fighters committed war crimes including beheading a 17-year-old boy despite no confirmed affiliation with any resistance group.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 20 July, the Taliban launched an offensive against NRF positions in Warsaj District, Takhar province, reportedly gathering over 300 fighters for the job. On 23 July, according to Iranian state-owned news Pars Today, the Taliban discovered and confiscated an ammunition warehouse in Varsaj District, Takhar province.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 25 July, NRF forces based in Kapisa province attacked Taliban positions in the Kohistan District, reportedly killing three Taliban fighters and wounding two. On 27 July, a senior NRF member had announced that it had carried out an offensive against a Taliban base in the Kalahan village, Kapisa on the night of 26 July. According to the NRF, five Taliban members were killed and one was wounded in the attack.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 10 August, fighting flared up in Panjshir between the NRF and Taliban, with the latter reportedly losing 25 fighters, while no casualties were reported for the NRF side.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 15 August, the one year anniversary since the fall of Afghanistan, the NRF launched an offensive in Panjshir, reportedly capturing seven villages in the Bazarak, Dara, Annaba, Shotul, Paryan, and Khenj districts, while surrounding Taliban fighters in several positions. Up to 40 Taliban fighters were captured in the Dara district, a statement which was backed by former Vice President Amrullah Saleh. By 16 August, 58 Taliban fighters were reportedly killed, with another 12 wounded, while casualty figures for the NRF were not reported. At the same time, the Taliban launched an operation in the Ishkashim District, Takhar, only to be besieged by the NRF in the village of Anjiristan on 15 August. On the next day, clashes occurred in the Ishkashim and Chal Districts, with the Taliban reportedly suffering heavy casualties according to the NRF. In the previous two weeks, the NRF had reportedly carried out several offensive attacks in the Farkhar District.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 17 August, the Hazara anti-Taliban rebel Mehdi Mujahid was captured and executed by the Taliban in the Kohsan District of Herat Province, who was reportedly attempting to travel to Iran prior to his execution.


title: Republican insurgency in Afghanistan

text: On 18 August, the NRF and Taliban clashed in the Taghanak village of Pul-e-Hesar district in Baghlan, resulting in 10 Taliban fighters killed and 8 wounded. At the same time, more NRF-Taliban clashes reportedly occurred in the Qeshlaq village of the Rustaq District of Takhar province, in which a local member of the Taliban intelligence was killed. Simultaneously, a fight broke out in the Raghistan District of Badakhshan, with the Taliban claiming three NRF killed.