Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

Tsavo Lion wrote:
How Taliban Return in Afghanistan Triggered Islamophobia in India

Completely false! Anti Muslim feelings among Hindus & Christians here in India has nothing to do with the rise of taliban in Afghanistan.

Tsavo Lion wrote:I doubt it; Pakistan has many.
Israel could launch a nuclear tipped CM from a sub in the Arabian Sea to kill ISIS-K &/ Talibs, possibly forcing Iran to invade Afghanistan to be stuck there for years.

https://www.juancole.com/2021/09/afghanistan-guerrillas-improvised.html

https://www.juancole.com/2021/09/afghanistan-americas-foreign.html

These Israeli missiles will have to fly over Pakistani airspace to enter Afghanistan. Pakistani Surface to Air Missile batteries will shoot them down.

It seems some are of opinion that the best outcome of stability for Afghanistan is that the NRF becomes contained and therefore yields to Taliban and then China or Russia move in . Again this does not reflect reality on the ground or how politics works . The tribes in Afghanistan can not be contained . They exist as a people with own identity . Containment by other tribes means genocide and ethnic cleansing . Maybe not important for outsiders , salivating for exclusive contracts with the murderous Taliban . But important for Afghans .

Second point about any political force in potential monopoly position , is that it will not yield a pluralistic outcome . The destruction of other tribes , will not lead to their empowerment . Iran , I doubt will share the same policy as China or Russia or USA . Turn a blind eye and see ethnic cleansing . Neither will it , I think give overt help . It will be more a case of turning a blind eye , when they cross border with Kalashnikov on shoulders !

For Iran strategic interest in free flow of trade to East via Afghanistan and central Asia as important or more so than route West through Iraq to Syria and Lebanon and Med sea to Europe . Since Iran already has trade route by sea to Europe . And size and importance of markets in Iraq and Syria , although important , are not as important as those in central Asia and China . Strategically speaking . So any anti-Iranian elements on route to China must be opposed . Iranians must get act together and support constructive elements in this important region . And oppose those rejectionists and extremists , standing against peace and progress .

William to the rescue: Prince 'personally stepped in to help Afghan officer he knew from Sandhurst to get himself and his family into Kabul airport and flee the Taliban to Britain'

Duke of Cambridge heard an Afghan officer he knew, and the man's family, were trapped in Kabul last month

He asked his equerry naval officer Rob Dixon to contact personnel in the region and get them into the airport

The Afghan officer, who attended Sandhurst, and his relatives were permitted to board a flight to Britain

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9953277/Prince-William-personally-stepped-help-Afghan-officer-knew-Sandhurst.html

Panjshir Observer
@PanjshirObserv
Panjshir Observer has launched a news website to cover the unfolding events in Panjshir & Afghanistan. While some corporate media is trying to normalize Taliban now, we report the situation happening on the ground.




https://panjshirobserver.com/



Large Taliban Offensive Against Panjshir Valley Ends in Massacre
SEP 3, 2021


Taliban launched their largest offensive against the Resistance Forces in Panjshir Valley last night. Over 7800 Taliban fighters and at least 300 vehicles, including tanks, were involved in the operation. This occurred after days of sporadic attacks from Taliban against all sides of Panjshir and neighboring provinces. One of the Resistance leaders Ahmad Massoud was also reported to be on the frontline commanding Resistance fighters.

The NRF(National Resistance Front) were able to hold their ground. It was only 4 hours into the offensive when the amount of causalities Taliban were taking started to become unbearable, forcing the Taliban fighters to enter full retreat, getting ambushed several times on their way back to Kabul.

Over 450 Taliban fighters were killed and at least 130 were captured. The amount of cannon fodder Taliban leadership threw at Panjshir Valley shows their growing frustration with the Resistance Forces. This offensive was a last ditch effort to squash the NRF before Taliban declare the formation of a new government in Kabul.


https://panjshirobserver.com/2021/09/large-taliban-offensive-against-panjshir-valley-ends-in-massacre/

Afghan Military Official Given Amnesty And Still Killed
ASakhi Akbari, former Afghan Military official that was given amnesty by Taliban is still gunned down in Kabul in targeted killing.

Sakhi was a commander from West Farah. He was given an amnesty card from Taliban and had to trust them to stick to their self-imposed restraint. Unfortunately, while travelling to Kabul Sakhi was killed by Taliban gunmen. There are reports similar to this happening all across Afghanistan. Hundreds, possibly even thousands of former Afghan military and police leadership are being killed.

Taliban now have access to Afghan intelligence databases as well as US military biometric equipment, allowing them to identify Afghans that worked for the Afghan government or western coalition forces with ease.UG 26, 2021

https://panjshirobserver.com/2021/08/afghan-military-official-given-amnesty-and-still-killed/

Capturing weapons, as the Eastern Ukrainians did!


Panjshir Update
@PanjshirUpdate
·
15h
Weapons captured from the Taliban in parwan #province.
Long live the republic .

They certainly remind me of the Eastern Ukrainians!








Resistance 2.0
@massoudiyaan
·
10h
The Taliban's worst nightmare: National Resistance Front, they vow never to bend the knee to any Terrorist group
Resistance Panjshir

Ashish Sinha
@Ashish_sinhaa
·
1h
Former president Hamid Karzai in a statement asked the Taliban and the "National Resistant Front" in #Panjshir to stop the fighting and resolve their issues through dialogues.

Doesn't the Taliban have him under house arrest in Kabul?

So the Taliban attacks, and Northern Panjhsir resists. It looks like Panjhsir has some grad to use against Taliban.

Amrullah Saleh
@AmrullahSaleh2
·
37m
Talibs have blocked humanitarian access to Panjshir, do racial profile of travelers, use military age men of Panjhsir as mine clearance tools walking them on mine fields, have shut phone, electricity & not allow medicine either. People can only carry small amount of cash. 1/2


Ashish Sinha
@Ashish_sinhaa
·
1h
Saifullah Hassanzai, former head of the Parwan tribal affairs, who is on the front lines of the Second Resistance Front in #Panjshir, by Sending these  images , saying that Panjshir will not surrender and would continue to resist #Taliban attacks.

Ashish Sinha
@Ashish_sinhaa
·
9m
Famous Pashtun singer Kafayat Shah Bacha is killed.

He was reportedly entering a mosque in his village in Sawabi to perform Jumma prayers when targeted.





Amrullah Saleh
@AmrullahSaleh2
·
37m
Talibs have blocked humanitarian access to Panjshir, do racial profile of travelers, use military age men of Panjhsir as mine clearance tools walking them on mine fields, have shut phone, electricity & not allow medicine either. People can only carry small amount of cash. 1/2



Mike Waltz talks Panjshir Valley forces on Fox Primetime
668 viewsSep 2, 2021


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTz--RYlBCI









Natiq Malikzada
@natiqmalikzada
·
7h
Local sources in Andrab and Panjshir say thousands of Taliban forces have been besieged in Khawak. They have been trapped from Chakri Jadid to Khawak pass which is about 8 km long. In past 2 days, Taliban tried to bring reinforcements to them from the Andarab route, but failed.

National Resistance Front repels multi-day Taliban assault on Panjshir
BY BILL ROGGIO & ANDREW TOBIN | September 2, 2021 | bill+roggio@gmail.com |
As of this morning, reports indicated that the NRF was able to expel the Taliban from Shotul as fighting continued further south near Gulbahar. National Resistance Front spokesman Fahim Dashty corroborated those reports, stating “the Taliban has spread rumors that they have entered parts of Panjshir. These are psychological operation (PsyOp) and propaganda. We assure full control over all the entrances of Panjshir. [The] Taliban have made multiple attempts to enter Shotul from Jabul-Saraj, and failed each time.”

Most recent reports suggested that pro-resistance fighters from Andarab have retaken the Khawak Pass, halting further Taliban incursions, although that information could not be independently verified.

In the northeast, the Taliban also attempted to enter the Panjshir Valley through the Anjuman Pass near Badakhshan. Given the lack of reporting on clashes in the northeast, it is likely that this was not a main line of effort for the Taliban and that the resistance forces were able to easily defend the pass from the assault. A former Afghan National Army commando reported that the Anjuman Pass is heavily guarded by elite units who have inflicted heavy casualties on any Taliban fighters who attempted to enter the valley.  

Furthermore, reports emerged of the Taliban employing Al Qaeda and foreign fighters to attack in Panjshir. Originally, that claim was propagated by Massoud’s forces in Panjshir. However, videos surfaced of militants speaking Arabic and Persian – among other languages on their way to the Khawak Pass in Baghlan. Furthermore, in the aftermath of the successful NRF ambush at Khawak, militia leaders are claiming that they eliminated both Taliban and Al Qaeda units.


https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2021/09/national-resistance-front-repels-multi-day-taliban-assault-on-panjshir.php

This is very interesting!
If Tajikistan is supporting Panjshir, and this says it is, then even Russia may end up supporting them. I have thought that governments don't put all their eggs into one basket.


Taliban unable to seize resistance forces-held Panjshir valley — experts
Military expert Ivan Konovalov pointed out that a prolonged siege of Panjshir is a very possible option

MOSCOW, September 3. /TASS/. The radical Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia), which has risen to power in Afghanistan, will be unable to seize Panjshir in the country's north - the sole province beyond their control, held by resistance forces under Ahmad Massoud, son of the once powerful field commander Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953-2001), military expert Ivan Konovalov, development director at the Foundation for the Promotion of 21st Century Technologies, told TASS.

"Panjshir is a theater of operations that is extremely difficult to storm, even though the Taliban have US military hardware at their disposal. Some temporary success may be possible, but keeping the territory of Panjshir under control will be extremely difficult. Our (Soviet) troops were through this once. In the meantime, the Taliban show no potential for conducting a major operation. They have overpowered the Americans by patience, and not by means of creating combined forces," he said.

To storm Panjshir the Taliban will need a major military buildup.

"For this there must be a large combined force and fundamental planning. A blitz will not work here," Konovalov warned.

Negotiations and long siege
The expert believes that there still remain certain chances Panjshir’s defenders and the Taliban may come to terms.

"However, in the context of Afghanistan’s realities, where the ethnic factor prevails sooner or later, such chances look slim," he stressed.

A prolonged siege of Panjshir is a very possible option, Konovalov believes.



In 1996, the Taliban failed to take Panjshir. Moreover, Tajikistan is now going to support its defenders, and this factor cannot but be taken into account," Konovalov said.

The chief of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, Alexander Mikhailov, believes that the militias in Panjshir should stand firm in order to "either remain an actor on behalf of the West in this region, or to enter into talks and, if possible, join a coalition government, which would pave the way for peace and prevent another spiral of civil war in Afghanistan."


https://tass.com/world/1333881

RT just reported that the Taliban has captured Panjshir province - we'll know sooner or later if this claim is indeed true but I must say the resistance movement is for all practical purposes completely isolated and stand very little chance of succeeding.

https://www.rt.com/news/533908-taliban-panjshir-control-afghanistan/

"Celebratory gunfire has erupted over Kabul, amid reports that the Taliban have defeated the Panjshir Valley ‘resistance’. The latter’s leader, Emir Hibatullah, has previously refuted the claims.

Tracers streaked across the night sky on Friday evening local time, reminiscent of celebrations on Tuesday following the departure of the last US airplane from Kabul. There were different reports as to the occasion, however, with RT’s senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev hearing both the talk of victory in Panjshir and the arrival of the Taliban’s leader."

This "resistance fighters" are really CIA stooges. Without support of the people. Look at the sources for their "victories", one of them is the Daily Mail!

Mir wrote:RT just reported that the Taliban has captured Panjshir province - we'll know sooner or later if this claim is indeed true but I must say the resistance movement is for all practical purposes completely isolated and stand very little chance of succeeding.

https://www.rt.com/news/533908-taliban-panjshir-control-afghanistan/

"Celebratory gunfire has erupted over Kabul, amid reports that the Taliban have defeated the Panjshir Valley ‘resistance’. The latter’s leader, Emir Hibatullah, has previously refuted the claims.

Tracers streaked across the night sky on Friday evening local time, reminiscent of celebrations on Tuesday following the departure of the last US airplane from Kabul. There were different reports as to the occasion, however, with RT’s senior correspondent Murad Gazdiev hearing both the talk of victory in Panjshir and the arrival of the Taliban’s leader."

For now Talibans didn't confirm to capture Panjshir province, but they reported to capture some mauntain tops around Panjshir walley. When talibans will control all mauntain tops around Panjshir, it will be the end for resistance.

Russia is neutral in this conflict and doesn't support Panjshir resistance. China and Talibans are interested to build friendly relations and China, Russia and Iran are members of SCO and partners in Silk road project. Talibans confirm to be in business. Forget about Panjshir resistance. They don't have support from big powers, they want stable Afghanistan with talibans.

https://twitter.com/shen_shiwei/status/1433617026594099200

"China is #Afghanistan's trustful friend. Afghan #Taliban is willing to continue to develop friendly ties btw China & Afghanistan."

Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Head of #Taliban Political Office in Qatar told Wu Jianghao, Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister in a phone call.

China state-affiliated media
Replying to
@shen_shiwei
“Afghan #Taliban will never allow any force to use the Afghan territory to engage in acts detrimental to China,”

Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Head of #Taliban Political Office in Qatar reiterates Taliban's stance to Wu Jianghao, China's Assistant Foreign Minister in a phone call.

Afghan #Taliban expressed willingness to support and participate the Belt and Road Initiative.

Abdul Salam Hanafi, Deputy Head of #Taliban Political Office in Qatar told Chinese side that China proposed BRI is favorable to #Afghanistan and regional prosperity.

Well it just shows that no tribe is indeed isolated or cut-off . And people who struggle to survive , will make all sorts of funny alliances , and who could blame them . Tribalism is a fail . And Taliban is tribalist . Here is political map of Afghanistan , now we see real balance of forces . Pashtun are 42 % . Any economic plan or exclusive agreement with any single tribe , will not benefit entire Afghanistan . The plan to work , must include all of Afghans . Any aid or Road or factory or trade deal must have this in mind . The Chinese better wait a bit , before wasting their time and money . The Taliban will no doubt be discriminatory towards others . They already show this in practice , cut phone , power and other people's throats . We can forget about them ( their throats ) . They can not forget about their throats .






https://ontheworldmap.com/afghanistan/map-of-languages-in-afghanistan.html

Sujoy wrote:These Israeli missiles will have to fly over Pakistani airspace to enter Afghanistan. Pakistani Surface to Air Missile batteries will shoot them down.

I doubt they r good at detecting & dropping low flying CMs.
Iran may invade if its interests there r threatened, & to protect farsi speakers.
Clashes erupted overnight between Taliban fighters and an anti-Taliban group in Afghanistan's northern Panjshir Valley, a source said. The mountainous, inaccessible region north of Kabul is the last major holdout against Taliban rule, and has a long history of resisting the insurgent group. Taliban fighters have been gathering forces in the area, and claimed they'd captured three districts in the valley. Sporadic fighting between the Taliban and the National Resistance Front has gone on for two weeks. The rugged, inaccessible landscape gives local forces an advantage over would-be invaders. A Taliban leader called on Panjshiris to accept an amnesty and avoid fighting, but acknowledged negotiations had yielded no result so far.

Why the Taliban still can’t form a government
By Pepe Escobar
It looked like everything was set for the Taliban to announce the new government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan after this Friday’s afternoon prayers. But then internal dissent prevailed. That was compounded by the adverse optics of a ragtag “resistance” in the Panjshir Valley that is de facto led by a CIA asset: former vice president Amrullah Saleh. https://asiatimes.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2049a8663daea00bd30c32cf2&id=b091fd8eee&e=5455568640

Taliban faces US destabilization from within
By M K Bhadrakumar
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated that Russia would consider recognizing Afghanistan’s new authorities once an inclusive government is formed in the country. US intelligence, meanwhile, has made deep ingresses into the Taliban and will try to splinter, weaken and subdue it when the crunch time comes.
https://asiatimes.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2049a8663daea00bd30c32cf2&id=e7987a89da&e=5455568640

US troops lingering in Pakistan ring alarm bells
By FM Shakil
Although Pakistan officially acknowledged the landing of military planes carrying hundreds of US troops from Afghanistan at Islamabad airport on August 29, it’s still not clear why many are still lingering in the country and not returning to the US or Qatar airbase. Islamabad has ruled out that US troops will remain in the country.
https://asiatimes.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2049a8663daea00bd30c32cf2&id=a436f6002a&e=5455568640

Why the West must stay engaged in Afghanistan
By Hamish McDonald
After the United States, Canadians, Europeans and Antipodeans spent two decades trying to build up an alternative government of liberal Islamic persuasion, only to see it promptly collapse as the final military support was removed, should these powers have anything more to do with Afghanistan? Two factors suggest they have little choice but to do so. https://asiatimes.us14.list-manage.com/track/click?u=2049a8663daea00bd30c32cf2&id=1b95688b4f&e=5455568640

Difficult to know what is happening on the ground, I think, & I think that nations don't always broadcast what they are doing. If Panjshir did take Takhar, then they can be supplied, if anyone wants to supply them. What is interesting to me is TASS saying that Tajikistan supports them. Unknown what arms they've collected in the past two years, or who, if anyone, supplied them, and with what. Whatever Russia says, Russia supports Tajikistan, correct? and Tajikistan supports Northern Alliance. or Panjshir.

So you have China, plus Taliban, plus Pakistan, plus Iran,  versus India, US, Great Britain, Nato,  and Russia claims to be neutral, correct?

Although at the same time US says it's going to build border post for Tajikistan.



Panjshir Observer
@PanjshirObserv
Khuwaja Ghar in Takhar province was just reportedly liberated by NRF (National Resistance Front). Takhar province strategically borders both Panjshir province and Tajikistan





Panjshir Observer Retweeted
Col Rahman Rahmani
@rahmanrahmanee
·
17h
Panjshir has been expanded to Parwan & Baghlan. In the resistance, women serve in the frontlines. They distribute food, clothing & make trenches. Some took arms, fighting this “GOOD FIGHT” on behalf of the world which abandoned them & left them at the mercy of Taliban terrorists!


Panjshir Observer
@PanjshirObserv
·
20h
Salang district in Parwan province was just liberated by Resistance fighters. Over 200 Taliban fighters that were supposed to be reinforcements have surrendered. Heavy fighting ongoing across Baghlan and Panjshir

It's a very messy business so we will have to wait and see what the real situation is - or at least how it's going to play out over the next couple of days.
The Northern Alliance will be hard presses to sustain any kind of resistance unless - as you pointed out - they can tunnel their way through to a friendly country. But to be honest I don't think they have any friends left in the region?

“You have to understand that Panjshir is a separate planet on the planet Afghanistan. These are not crazy fanatics, they are people with a completely different philosophy and psychology, ”Yamshchikov said. The former military man added that if the Taliban enter Panjshir, then a maximum of 2-3 kilometers inland, and then they will be forced out by resistance units. He also expressed confidence that Masood Jr. will fight to the end for the Taliban's withdrawal from the province.
Afghan war veteran assesses Taliban's chances of defeating resistance in Panjshir

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/asia/kabul-afghan-women-protest-intl/index.html

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-taliban-arsenal-military-equipment/

The Afghan Resistance Says Reports Of Its Defeat In Panjshir Are Taliban Propaganda
A band of Afghan resistance fighters holed up in the country's rugged Panjshir province northeast of Kabul have repelled repeated attacks by Taliban fighters in recent days, a representative for the group tells NPR.

Speaking with NPR's All Things Considered on Friday, Ali Nazary, the National Resistance Front's head of foreign relations, who is currently in the U.S., also denied reports that the Taliban have taken control of the province — the last major territory standing between the Islamist militia and total control over Afghanistan — calling the rumors "propaganda."

The Panjshir Valley "has not been breached," he told host Audie Cornish. "The Taliban are facing fierce resistance."

"The Taliban propaganda machine is trying to divert attention, is trying to spread propaganda, to weaken morale in Kabul and elsewhere," said Nazary, who says he's been in close contact with NRF officials in Panjshir.

https://www.npr.org/2021/09/03/1033966153/afghanistan-taliban-panjshir-resistance

Tsavo Lion wrote:“You have to understand that Panjshir is a separate planet on the planet Afghanistan. These are not crazy fanatics, they are people with a completely different philosophy and psychology, ”Yamshchikov said. The former military man added that if the Taliban enter Panjshir, then a maximum of 2-3 kilometers inland, and then they will be forced out by resistance units. He also expressed confidence that Masood Jr. will fight to the end for the Taliban's withdrawal from the province.
Afghan war veteran assesses Taliban's chances of defeating resistance in Panjshir

https://www.cnn.com/2021/09/03/asia/kabul-afghan-women-protest-intl/index.html

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/us-taliban-arsenal-military-equipment/

Google Translate

Afghan war veteran assesses Taliban chances to defeat resistance in Panjshir
Afghan war veteran Yamshchikov said the Taliban will not be able to conquer Panjshir
1

Photo: Reuters
Representatives of the Taliban movement (banned in Russia) will not be able to conquer Panjshir, where the resistance forces led by Ahmad Massoud are based. Such an assessment of the radicals' chances to take the last unconquered territory was given by the chairman of the board of the Yaroslavl regional organization "Russian Union of Afghanistan Veterans" Igor Yamshchikov, RIA Novosti reports.


Well forgotten old. The Taliban are assembling the government and playing diplomacy. What awaits Afghanistan under terrorist rule?
According to him, the participants in the resistance are well armed and will not surrender to any armed forces. He explained that he himself served in this province in 1982-1983 and knows the peculiarities of the way of life of local residents who are ready to defend their territory to the last.

“You have to understand that Panjshir is a separate planet on the planet Afghanistan. These are not crazy fanatics, they are people with a completely different philosophy and psychology, ”Yamshchikov said. The former military man added that if the Taliban enter Panjshir, then a maximum of 2-3 kilometers inland, and then they will be forced out by resistance units. He also expressed confidence that Masood Jr. will fight to the end for the Taliban's withdrawal from the province.

On September 3, it became known that the Taliban's night offensive into the Panjshir Valley had failed. It was noted that the Taliban attacked the valley in three directions, but were unable to succeed in any of them. At the same time, by the morning the resistance fighters were able to recapture the few positions captured by the terrorists.

Earlier, the radical group decided to launch an offensive against resistance forces in Panjshir province after the failure of negotiations with rebel leader Ahmad Massoud. The Taliban announced they had reached the main road in the province and seized 11 checkpoints.

Hole wrote:This "resistance fighters" are really CIA stooges. Without support of the people. Look at the sources for their "victories", one of them is the Daily Mail!

So people resisting Taliban rule are CIA stooges....? What a stupid thing to say honestly.

Not like it's the goddam Taliban and that's why they are resisting, your bias makes you utterly blind to reality.

Do me a favor go live in Afghanistan for a year assuming you even come back alive, then you will realize how idiotic you just sounded.

Exclusive: 'They'll kill us' - Afghan pilots at Uzbek camp fear deadly homecoming
Sept 3 (Reuters) - The U.S.-trained Afghan pilots and others held at a camp in Uzbekistan already feared being sent back to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. So it was little comfort when an Uzbek guard unsympathetically quipped the other day: "You can't stay here forever."

The offhand warning added to an already grinding sense of unease at the camp just across Afghanistan's northern border, recounted one of the Afghan pilots who fled there with aircraft when ground forces fell to the Taliban in August as the United states and its allies withdrew their forces.

What follows is the first, detailed inside account among Afghans who, for nearly three weeks, have been waiting in vain to be evacuated by the United States.

"If they send us back, I'm 100 percent sure they'll kill us," said the pilot, who declined to be named because of fear of reprisal.
Speaking to Reuters on a cell phone that the Afghans there try to keep out of sight, the pilot described feeling like a prisoner, with highly restricted movement, long hours in the sun, and insufficient food and medicine. Some have lost weight.

"We are kind of like in jail," said the pilot, who estimates the Afghans held there number 465. "We have no freedom here."

Late August satellite images provided to Reuters showed high walls surrounding the camp, whose housing units had been used previously to treat COVID-19 patients and is near the city of Termez. Images shared with Reuters from inside showed sparse white rooms with bunk beds and no clutter - since most Afghans arrived with just the clothes on their backs.

Uzbek guards were armed, some with handguns and others with semi-automatic weapons, the pilot said.
Senator Jack Reed, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he was "deeply concerned" about the Afghan pilots and other forces there.
"It is imperative that these personnel not fall into the hands of the Taliban both for their safety and the valuable technical knowledge and training they have," Reed told Reuters.

John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he believed Uzbekistan faced real and substantial pressure from the Taliban to hand them over.

"They want to have good relations with Taliban. They don't want to provoke them, but they also don't want to provoke us," said Herbst, now at the Atlantic Council think-tank. He called for "competent statesmanship."
BIOMETRIC READINGS

On Wednesday, officials from the U.S. government arrived at the camp to take biometric data from the Afghan personnel there, the pilot said.

"Fingerprints and also checking the IDs," he said.

The State Department did not respond to a question from Reuters about the visit.

The appearance of the U.S. personnel lifted the mood somewhat, the pilot said, but there was still no clear indication of whether help was on its way.



https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/exclusive-theyll-kill-us-afghan-pilots-held-uzbek-camp-fear-deadly-homecoming-2021-09-03/

Looks like the Taliban have the high ground...

https://twitter.com/AFG_Resistance/status/1433844987750457392?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1433844987750457392%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=

"We are having some issues! Taliban have brought heavy guns up the hills. We are trying to control the high ground. Some parts of the fronts have become meat-grinder. We are doing what's humanly possible with what we have! Good night brothers. Keep us in your prayers