National Resistance Front of Afghanistan

The National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), also known as the Panjshir resistance and the Second Resistance, is a military alliance of former Northern Alliance members and other anti-Taliban fighters who remain loyal to the former Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. The group has been known since August 2021 - during the 2021 Taliban offensive.

The group had de facto control over the Panjshir Valley, as of early September 2021; but on September 6, 2021, there was heavy fighting and many deaths on both sides; the Taliban took control of the house that has the governor's office in Bazarak; and the Taliban took control of most of the Panjshir province.

The leaders of the resistance group are the politicians Ahmad Massoud and Amrullah Saleh (the vice president in the government that lost power over most of Afghanistan in August 2021).

Massoud escaped to Tajikistan [sometime between September 6 and September 21]; Saleh escaped (by helicopter) a few days after Massoud; The two have not been seen in public, after their escape, said "The Intercept" on September 21; Its sources are "a senior U.S. intelligence official, a Pentagon consultant, and two former senior Afghan government officials".

The name second resistance follows the name of the "first resistance" - a fight between the Northern Alliance (and a few other groups) against the Taliban from 1993 to the early 2000s.


Timeline of the Panjshir conflict

Media said in August, that "There have been messages among" American and British former soldiers and former private security contractors (that had worked in Afghanistan); the messages are saying that Afghans outside the country are "starting to
gather" money for raising [or building] "private forces [...] to fight the Taliban".. "There have been messages among former American and British military, many of whom had deployed in Afghanistan while in service, or later as private security contractors, about Afghans abroad allegedly starting to raise [money or] funds for private forces to be raised to fight the Taliban".

As of September 9, researchers at Bellingcat said that intelligence from publicly available sources, shows that the Taliban control territory at least  into the valley. The Taliban has placed the valley under siege, and journalists or goods can not come into the valley; That is why media said that is difficult to know how much control the Taliban have.

One investigative report was published by BBC on 13 September; The report found that the Taliban had executed at least 20 civilians in Panjshir since they went into the valley. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid, on the other hand, denied the group had done any human rights violation in the province. Journalists from Agence France-Presse were let into Panjshir on 15 September; They found many villages in the three districts they visited nearly empty; Residents told the journalists that the Taliban had executed 19 civilians between the village of Khenj and Bazarak; Residents also said that civilians were being (stopped or) prevented from escaping the province, so that civilians could be used as human shields during attacks by resistance fighters.

A doctor in Panjshir  told Al Jazeera that all hospitals in the province had been closed or were operating on limited supplies, except for an emergency hospital staffed by Italians.

Picture gallery

 Related pages

 List of ongoing armed conflicts

References

Category:War in Afghanistan (since 1978)
Category:Rebel militia groups in Asia