The fate of Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley - the final holdout against Taliban control - hangs in the balance as heavy fighting continues. Taliban sources said that they had seized the area, but the resistance fighters they are battling denied this. One of the resistance leaders, Amrullah Saleh, dismissed claims he had fled, but said the situation was “difficult”.
The fighting in Panjshir is reported to have left hundreds dead.
In Kabul and other cities several people were killed and others injured by celebratory gunfire, reports said. Panjshir Valley, north of the capital Kabul, is one of Afghanistan’s smallest provinces and the only one not to have fallen to the Taliban.
The traditional anti-Taliban stronghold is home to somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 people, and is hidden behind mountain peaks. - BBC