Afghanistan: anti-Taliban leader hopes for peace, but ready to fight
- Son of legendary mujahideen commander has sought to assemble a force to counter the Taliban
- Taliban says ‘hundreds’ of fighters head for holdout valley where resistance group has gathered
Ahmad Massoud, leader of Afghanistan’s last major outpost of anti-Taliban resistance, said on Sunday he hoped to hold peaceful talks with the Islamist movement that seized power in Kabul a week ago but that his forces were ready to fight.
“We want to make the Taliban realise that the only way forward is through negotiation,” he told Reuters by telephone from his stronghold in the Panjsher valley northwest of Kabul, where he has gathered forces made up of remnants of regular army units and special forces as well as local militia fighters.
“We do not want a war to break out.”
The comments came as a statement on the Taliban’s Alemarah Twitter feed said hundreds of fighters were heading towards Panjsher “after local state officials refused to hand it over peacefully”. A short video showed a column of captured trucks with the white Taliban flag but still bearing their government markings moving along a highway.
Massoud, son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, one of the main leaders of Afghanistan’s anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s, said his supporters were ready to fight if Taliban forces tried to invade the valley.
“They want to defend, they want to fight, they want to resist against any totalitarian regime.”