The Washington Post - USA (2022-06-12)

SUNDAY, JUNE 12 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

The World

VENEZUELA

Pact signed with Iran

against U.S. sanctions

Iran and Venezuela, oil
producers grappling with
crippling U.S. sanctions, signed a
20-year cooperation plan on
Saturday in Te hran.
The plan includes cooperation
in the fields of oil,
petrochemicals, defense and
agriculture. It also includes
repair of Venezuelan refineries
and technical services.
I n a meeting with Venezuelan
President Nicolás Maduro, Iran’s
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, vowed Iran would
continue to back Venezuela in
the face of U.S. pressures,
according to state media.
Defying those pressures, Iran
has already sent several cargoes
of fuel to Venezuela and helped
in refinery repairs.
Last month, Venezuela began
importing Iranian heavy crude,
widening a swap agreement
signed last year.
— Reuters

BOLIVIA

Former interim

president convicted

Jeanine Áñez, Bolivia’s former

interim president, was convicted

late Friday of leading an alleged

coup that deposed her left-wing

predecessor.

The 54-year-old Áñez was

convicted of violating the

constitution and “dereliction of

duty,” according to Reuters. She

was sentenced to 10 years

imprisonment after a closely

watched trial. She has denied all

wrongdoing and plans to appeal.

Áñez, a conservative whose

presidency was backed by the

Trump administration, came to

power after a political crisis in

2019 that saw the socialist

incumbent Evo Morales flee into

exile. S he left office after Luis

Arce, who had been Morales’s

finance minister, won the

presidency in 2020. Áñez

dropped out of that race due to

poor polling.

— Ana Vanessa Herrero

and Katerina Ang

N. Korea’s nuclear negotiator

promoted to foreign minister:

North Korea promoted Choe Son

Hui, its key nuclear negotiator,

to foreign minister, state media

said on Saturday, as leader

Kim Jong Un vowed to his

ruling party that he would use

“power for power” to fight

threats to the country’s

sovereignty. The change at the

Foreign Ministry came as

defense ministers of South Korea

and the United States

condemned North Korea’s

preparations for a nuclear test,

saying this and a series of missile

launches threaten the peace and

safety of the Korean Peninsula

and the international

community.

Bodies from helicopter crash in

Italy are located: Rescuers have

found the bodies of seven people

killed in a helicopter crash in

Italy, local authorities said. The

helicopter had taken off on

Thursday from Lucca in Tuscany

and was heading toward the

northern city of Treviso when it

was lost in bad weather.

Damascus airport runway

damaged by a irstrike: An Israeli

airstrike that hit Damascus

International Airport caused

“significant” damage to

infrastructure and rendered the

main runway unserviceable until

further notice, Syria said

Saturday. Israel’s military has

declined to comment on the

airstrike. The statement by the

Transportation Ministry was the

first detailing the extent of

damage from Friday’s airstrike.

Syrian media reported earlier

that Syria suspended all flights

to and from the airport.

China traces coronavirus

outbreak in Beijing to bar:

China’s capital, Beijing, is facing

an “explosive” covid-19 outbreak

connected to a bar, the

government warned, as the

commercial hub of Shanghai

began mass testing to contain a

jump in cases tied to a popular

beauty salon. The warning

followed a renewed tightening of

covid curbs in Beijing since

Thursday, with at least two

districts — including its most

populous, Chaoyang — closing

certain entertainment venues

after a flare-up in a busy

neighborhood known for its

nightlife, shopping and streets of

embassies.

— F rom news services

DIGEST

ESSAM AL-SUDANI/REUTERS

Iraqi protesters in Basra , an oil center near the Persian Gulf,

block the highway to Baghdad to put pressure on the government

to provide them with job opportunities at oil companies in the area.

BY SUSANNAH GEORGE

AND AZIZ TASSAL

dara, afghanistan — Taliban
forces have been locked for
months in a shadowy on-again,
off-again battle with opposition
fighters based in the Panjshir
Valley. Just a few hours’ drive
north of Kabul, the province has
long been an anti-Ta liban strong-
hold and remains the only signifi-
cant pocket of resistance to the
group since the fall of Kabul last
August.
The Washington Post secured
a rare visit to the mountains and
villages where the fight is playing
out, getting a glimpse of a conflict
that the Ta liban has gone to great
lengths to conceal.
Ta liban officials flatly deny
there is any violence in the area,
even though thousands of the
group’s forces are visible across
the valley. “Everything here is
fine,” insisted Nasrullah Malikza-
da, the Ta liban’s local informa-
tion director in Panjshir. “There
is no fighting at all.”
Yet residents say assaults on
Ta liban positions are a regular
occurrence, and dozens of people
have been killed, with some civil-
ians imprisoned in sweeping ar-
rests. Those residents spoke on
the condition of anonymity or
used only one name for fear of
reprisals.
The clashes in Panjshir are
unlikely to pose an imminent
threat to the Ta liban’s control of
the province or the country, but
the violent resistance here punc-
tures key narratives propping up
the movement’s claim to legiti-
macy: that its rule has brought
peace to Afghanistan and that its
fighters are capable of maintain-
ing security.
When the Ta liban swept into
Kabul in summer 2021 and the
Afghan military melted away, a
small band of fighters in the
Panjshir held out for weeks. The
Ta liban claimed to have taken full
control of the valley in Septem-
ber, but spokesmen for the Na-
tional Resistance Front say they
never surrendered.
Panjshir has a long history of
resistance: It was the one prov-
ince Ta liban fighters were never
able to pacify after taking Kabul
for the first time in 1996. The
current anti-Ta liban movement is
led by Ahmad Massoud — the son
of legendary resistance leader
Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was
assassinated by al-Qaeda two
days before the Sept. 11, 200 1,
attacks on the United States —
and former vice president Amrul-
lah Saleh. Both men fled Afghani-
stan in late 2021, but they contin-
ue to direct operations from exile
and are believed to command
thousands of fighters.
A commander of approximate-
ly 100 fighters in Panjshir said the
opposition is mostly armed with
weapons shipped into Afghani-
stan across its borders with Uz-
bekistan and Ta jikistan. But the
munitions, including heavy
weapons such as rocket launch-
ers, are not enough.
“We are supported by several
countries, but we need more,” he
said, speaking on the condition of
anonymity for security reasons.
Ta liban leaders have sought to
contain news from Panjshir by
limiting access to the valley and
issuing sweeping denials when
confronted with reports of fight-
ing.

edly published reports filled with

“lies.”

Under Ta liban rule, informa-

tion that challenges the official

line is increasingly difficult to

verify. The country’s media land-

scape has shrunk, civil society

faces constant intimidation, and

human rights groups have either

disbanded or operate under se-

vere limitations.

In Panjshir, there are compet-

ing, one-sided narratives. As the

Ta liban maintains that all is

calm, spokesmen for the resis-

tance post near-daily social me-

dia updates on their armed strug-

gle. Residents have learned to be

skeptical.

“There is a lot of propaganda

[on both sides] in the war in

Panjshir,” said a farmer in Dara

village who was once a member

of the Afghan police force.

The farmer says he often sees

the bodies of dead Ta liban fight-

ers driven away in the back of

trucks after battle, though he

thinks claims by the resistance to

have killed more than 300 fight-

ers over the past month are

greatly exaggerated.

“It’s a big province. People in

one village don’t necessarily

know what’s going on in another

every single day,” said Ali Maisam

Nazary, the head of foreign rela-

tions for the resistance. Nazary

said the group’s information

comes from commanders on the

ground and informants inside

the Ta liban.

The farmer believes both sides

are playing down civilian casual-

ties. After a recent clash, he said

he attended back-to-back funer-

als for 10 people killed in the

crossfire in his village alone. Ta lk-

ing to friends and family else-

where in the valley, he estimated

the total number could have been

four times that in a single day.

Both the Ta liban and the Na-

tional Resistance Front claim

that no civilians have been killed

in the recent fighting.

“Maybe two or three people

have died, [but] it was probably

from the cold or from falling off a

mountain,” said Malikzada, the

Ta liban’s information minister.

“No one has been killed in clash-

es.”

Clashes have increased since

the end of the holy month of

Ramadan in May, according to

residents interviewed by The

Post. Spring has always marked

the beginning of Afghanistan’s

fighting season, as the weather in

the north becomes milder and

makes it easier for fighters to

maneuver.

The attacks have become more

brutal as casualties have mount-

ed on both sides, according to a

tribal elder, Ta whidi, who spoke

on the condition that he be iden-

tified only by his last name for

fear of reprisals. He said he has

witnessed Ta liban fighters carry-

ing out summary executions af-

ter suffering losses in an assault

and has heard similar reports

from other parts of the valley.

Faramaraz, who works in a

bazaar not far from Dara village,

said Ta liban fighters left the body

of a dead opposition fighter on

the side of a main road in late

May.

“They wanted everyone to see,”

he said. “A nd they wouldn’t allow

the men to move him for burial;

they made the women take the

body to the cemetery.”

Malikzada conceded t hat thou-

sands of Ta liban fighters have

been dispatched to the province,

including some of the group’s

most elite units. Their forces can

be seen everywhere in the valley,

and sophisticated military equip-

ment is positioned along other-

wise idyllic orchards and rivers.

DadMuhammad Battar, a for-

mer Ta liban Red Unit command-

er in Laghman, is now one of the

group’s top special forces leaders

in the area. He said he coordi-

nates with similar units attached

to the Defense Ministry and a

Ta liban quick reaction force sta-

tioned in the provincial capital.

“The situation is completely

fine here,” he said, seated beside a

bouquet of plastic flowers and a

dozen American-made M-16 ri-

fles. “We go on patrol, but we

haven’t conducted any opera-

tions. We a re mainly here to focus

on criminal cases.”

Along the road just outside

Battar’s base, dozens of Ta liban

convoys could be seen weaving in

and out of the valley as the sun

began to fade. Further down,

heavy armored vehicles — Hum-

vees and MRAPs — formed check-

points along the roads leading to

and from villages that residents

said had seen the most recent

round of fighting.

“It’s important for the foreign-

ers to trust us,” Malikzada said at

the end of the guided tour. “We

don’t l ie to the foreign media. The

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan

already proved to the people of

Afghanistan that everything we

say is the reality.”

Turning to The Post reporter,

he added: “There is no reason for

you not to trust us.”

Tassal reported from Houston.

Inside the Taliban’s secret war in the Panjshir Valley

A rare visit to the mountains and villages north of Kabul, where a fiery resistance rages that the group desperately wants to hide

“Of course no one knows what

is happening here,” a 62-year-old

shopkeeper named Gulzar told

The Post on the recent visit to the

valley. “No one is allowed to come

here; I don’t even know how you

got here,” he said, cautiously

watching pickup trucks and ar-

mored vehicles packed with Ta li-

ban fighters race up and down

the hillside.

The Post was officially granted

access to the valley by Ta liban

leaders in Kabul and Panjshir,

who said they wanted media

coverage of security and stability

in the area. After a guided tour of

the province’s capital, The Post

team was given permission to

travel unaccompanied to villages

and to interview civilians. Those

interactions offered a small win-

dow into an opaque struggle.

Gulzar said the most recent

wave of fighting spilled into his

village. “I was here at my shop

when I heard the gunfire begin,”

he said, pointing to the orchards

separating him from his family

home on the opposite cliffside.

He immediately gathered his rel-

atives and fled to the mountains.

The clashes raged for over a

day before anti-Ta liban fighters

ran out of ammunition and sur-

rendered. Gulzar said h e watched

dozens of men hand over their

weapons before being taken

away. Two other men from the

area confirmed his account.

Malikzada, the Ta liban infor-

mation minister, said the fighting

Gulzar described was “propa-

ganda from outside forces” and

“entirely false.” He also denied

restricting access to Panjshir,

though he admitted to having

recently blocked at least one

international news outlet from

visiting the valley because he

thought the organization repeat-

SUSANNAH GEORGE/THE WASHINGTON POST

Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley, just a few hours’ drive north of Kabul, has long been an anti-Taliban stronghold and remains the only

significant pocket of resistance to the group nearly 10 months after the fall of Kabul.

ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

Taliban members pose for a photo after claiming to have taken the Panjshir Valley in September 2021.

Residents say assaults on Taliban positions are a regular occurrence, and dozens have been killed.