Taliban wage offensive against Panjshir rebel stronghold, prepare to announce new Afghan government

The Taliban moved to consolidate control over Afghanistan on Thursday, with the group’s fighters advancing against a final pocket of armed resistance and its leaders preparing to announce a new government.

More than two weeks after the Islamic militants seized control of the Afghan capital and days after the United States completed its withdrawal, the Taliban were meeting to finalize the details of their new regime.

It will face formidable economic and security challenges after a chaotic end to a two-decade conflict.

The country’s economy is on the brink of collapse, and there are no guarantees the international community will grant aid to a Taliban government. In a bid to boost its standing in the eyes of the world, the group has sought to allay fears the country will become a hub for terror and instability.

But persistent reports of repression and last week’s suicide attack by the Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, terror group, have undermined those efforts, while resistance from a guerilla stronghold north of Kabul has also posed a threat to Taliban control.

The Taliban said Thursday their fighters had launched an operation to take the Panjshir Valley, one of the last pockets of the country not in the militant group’s hands, after negotiations failed.

The area has long been a bastion of resistance in Afghanistan. Local fighters held back the Soviets in the 1980s and the Taliban a decade later under the leadership of Ahmad Shah Massoud, a storied guerrilla fighter killed in a suicide bombing who remains widely admired in Afghanistan.

His son, Ahmad Massoud, and several former government officials are now attempting to establish a resistance movement in the same guerrilla heartland.

Fahim Dashti, a spokesman for the National Resistance Forces, a group loyal to Massoud, said in a video message shared with NBC News and other outlets Wednesday night that the Taliban had launched an offensive in the previous 40 hours.

“They did not succeed in their offensive and they did not advance even a kilometer,” Dashti said.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told NBC News on Thursday that Taliban fighters had entered Panjshir and captured 11 “important” positions, including the area’s main valley and the main road between Panjshir and Badakhshan.