Taliban claims victory in Panjshir as it calls for end to war

The Taliban has claimed victory over opposition forces in the last holdout province of Panjshir, completing their takeover of Afghanistan three weeks after capturing Kabul.

“With this victory, our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war,” chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Monday.

The anti-Taliban National Resistance Front (NRF), pledged to carry on fighting in Panjshir Valley, saying it is present in “strategic positions” and that “the struggle against the Taliban… will continue”.

The whereabouts of resistance leader Ahmed Massoud and Amrullah Saleh, the former vice president who had joined the resistance after the fall of Kabul, were not immediately known.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has flown to Qatar to discuss the chaotic aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. (ALJAZEERA)