Afghan Commandos, Northern Alliance Prepare to Fight Taliban

PANJSHIR VALLEY, AFGHANISTAN — Ancient enemies of the Taliban and elite Afghan commandos who were trained by the SAS and U.S. Special Forces are regrouping in a part of Afghanistan that had always hated the Taliban.

They are preparing for a fight to the death, and if Western countries don’t help them they will probably be wiped out.

Here are the details: The New York Times reports that leaders in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley are defying the Taliban, and Afghan forces who are still determined to continue fighting are regrouping around them.

Among these are U.S. Special Forces and British Special Air Service-trained Afghan commandos who vow to fight until their “last drop of blood” to take their country back from the Taliban.

These anti-Taliban forces are preparing for the coming fight in the Panjshir Valley, an area just 80 miles north of Kabul.

Any soldiers or militias who want to take up arms against the Taliban are being urged to flock to the valley, where Afghanistan's Vice President Amrullah Saleh has declared himself the country's rightful leader.

In a Twitter message to Afghans, Saleh said: “Join the resistance.

I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to Talib terrorists.” He has vowed to resist after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

It is feared the commandos face deadly reprisals if caught by the Taliban's death squads, with 22 of their number having been brutally executed in June after they ran out of ammunition while fighting the insurgents in Dawlat Abad.

The son of Ahmad Shah Massoud, one of the main leaders of Afghanistan's anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s, has also pledged to hold out against the Taliban from his stronghold in the Panjshir valley.

In a Washington Post editorial, Ahmad Massoud, the 32-year-old son of the famous mujahideen commander, said members of the Afghan military — including some from the elite Special Forces units — had rallied to his cause under the banner of the Northern Alliance and he appealed to the West for help.