Russian pilots will maintain and fly the aircraft.
Posted on 08/25/2021 2:52:29 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes
The Taliban is sending fighters to Panjshir, an anti-Taliban stronghold in northern Afghanistan, as the insurgent group works to tighten its grip on the country and seize the last remaining province.
Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, announced in a statement on Monday that resistance forces are "surrounded," according to The Washington Post. He said the fighters were "at the gate of Panjshir."
Mujahid added that the insurgent group would prefer to bypass future fighting and instead "resolve the issue peacefully through negotiations," the Post reported.
A Taliban fighter, however, told the Post that the militant group decided to send fighters into Panjshir because conversations with the resistance group "couldn't yield any results."
Fighters with the resistance group have reportedly been preparing for a potential advance by the Taliban.
Fahim Qiami, an aide to resistance leaders, told the Post, "Currently, there is calm, and no fighting going on. But the forces in Panjshir are ready to fight back, if anything happens."
One of the anti-Taliban leaders in the valley is Ahmad Massoud, the son of a notable military commander who fought the Soviets and later the Taliban before being assassinated, according to the Post.
Massoud told Reuters on Sunday that the resistance group would like to hold peaceful talks with the Taliban but that his personnel were ready to fight if the insurgents invaded.
"We want to make the Taliban realise that the only way forward is through negotiation," Massoud told Reuters from the Panjshir valley. "We do not want a war to break out."
"They want to defend, they want to fight, they want to resist against any totalitarian regime," he said of his fighters.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
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by A.J. Caschetta
September 6, 2016
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8872/ahmad-shah-massoud
Unfortunately, Afghanistan's neighbors were not about to let a democratic government with Western influences flourish on their borders, so war broke out.
"[I]t was Massoud and his followers who struggled to uphold human rights, and his enemies who abused them." — John Jennings, Associated Press.
In 1998, the same year Osama bin Laden released his Declaration of War Against Americans with its "ruling to kill the Americans," Massoud wrote that Afghanistan had become "occupied by fanatics, extremists, terrorists, mercenaries, drug Mafias and professional murderers." Citing a "duty to defend humanity against the scourge of intolerance, violence and fanaticism," he pleaded for American assistance, to no avail.
In 2012, Afghanistan's National Assembly declared September 9 "Massoud Day. It should be "Massoud Day" in America too.
Before the 15th commemoration of the 9/11 attacks this Sunday, America might also do well to pause on Friday, September 9, to reflect on the 15th anniversary of the assassination of Ahmad Shah Massoud, an Afghan of Tajik ancestry from the Panshjir Valley, who was our best ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Massoud's detractors say he was just another warlord, but this is not correct. True, the Lion of the Panjshir, as he was known, was a commander of forces. But in a land of warlords, he stood out as a humanist who by all accounts practiced a tolerant, egalitarian version of Islam. He played chess, read poetry, and traveled with hundreds of books. Some called him the "warrior monk."
Massoud opposed forced marriages, child marriages, and other kinds of widely-approved abuses of women. He signed and promoted the Declaration of the Essential Rights of Afghan Women. That alone makes him more than "just another warlord."
He once said, "I am against killing anyone because they believe in communism, liberalism, or any other 'ism.'"[1] But Massoud did kill. He was a key member of the mujahideen who, with American weapons, ousted the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. He then fought the Soviet puppet-government led by a Moscow-educated Afghan, Dr. Mohammad Najibullah.
More at link
Russian pilots will maintain and fly the aircraft.
I hope so.
That is what's worrisome. The resistance might be great warriors, but Biden has armed the Taliban to the hilt.
Massoud (the father) was killed in a bombing 2 days before 9/11. Al Qaeda instigated it and if I remember correctly a couple of Talibani vermin delivered the bomb. Think they were killed by Massoud’s forces. (or the bomb)
Time to send air support up there, Cobras, C130 etc kill all the Taliban there and all the other out posts, make them defend Kabul. Stop them from leaving for Pakistan.
bkmk
Looks like someone hasn't learned any lessons in the last 30 years.
Nope.
Pilots are not generally mechanics. Russian or otherwise.
Maintenance require parts.
What is missing in the discussion here is the effect of the Taliban sending forces to deal with this. If they are sending forces there, they will not be available to use against our folks at the Kabul Airport.
That’s the group that was on the ground that took Kabul with our air support, if I remember correctly.
Hi.
Northern Alliance?
Abdullah Abdullah.
Kicked ass with CAS in 2001, will probably kick ass 2021 with U.S. air support.
5.56mm
Yes. They also saved the lives of people outside their ethnic enclave by sheltering them when the were singled out for extinction. Many were Christians.
They were very good allies.
The article I posted link for is very accurate:
Massoud Day, September 9 (America’s Best Ally in Afghanistan)
A.J. Caschetta (September 6, 2016 at 4:00 am)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8872/ahmad-shah-massoud
The question is, will Biden send support? Does he even care? Does he know at all what's going on?
Guess we'll find out soon enough...
That's a good point. Hopeful...
Will Biden send air support? If he doesn't, I hope the Northern Alliance won't need it.
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