Opinion

Resistance against the Taliban in the North

photo_camera Resistencia contra los talibanes en el norte

The Taliban's sweeping victory in Afghanistan's return to power is not as consolidated throughout the country as has been claimed since they stormed Kabul. In the north of the country, some 150 kilometres from the capital, guerrilla groups are putting up a resistance that has so far managed to take control of three districts: Pul-e-Hesar, Dah-e -Salah and Bano.

All three are in the mountains north of the Panjshir Valley, where the guerrillas of former warlord Ahmed Shah Massould, nicknamed "the Lion of Panjshir and killed twenty years ago by Al Qaeda, now led by his eponymous son, are resisting the invasion of the new rulers. According to US press reports, based on information from the ground, rebels in the three rebel districts have taken down the white flags flown by the Taliban and replaced those of defeated Afghanistan.

The resistant militia is made up of former regime military, officers and soldiers, who have been joined spontaneously by numerous locals fighting with bladed weapons and stones. The makeshift militia, reports The New York Times, succeeded in driving out the Taliban who were trying to take control. Thirty Taliban were killed in the fighting and twelve others were arrested, according to guerrilla sources.

News of the incidents was indirectly confirmed in Kabul when a Taliban spokesman denied that the reported death toll was real and halved it. Experts have doubts about the future of the resistance. Although it has trained and armed soldiers, the widespread impression is that it is unlikely to be able to maintain its resistance for long.

Everything will depend, they say, on the help they receive from Panjshir, on possible foreign support and on the cohesion they can maintain between the different tribes involved. The area is very rugged and its communications, only by hellish roads through the mountains, will make it difficult for the Taliban to reach the Taliban in their attempt to liquidate the resistance, as will the guerrillas themselves to open up from isolation to the outside world and to the rest of the country.