How one anti-Taliban resistance leader is approaching the fight ahead
Ahmad Massoud wants the world to know he is not giving up.
Son of late commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, a famed resistance leader against both the Soviets and the Taliban, Massoud is now spearheading the fight in Afghanistan's Panjshir province, the country's last anti-Taliban holdout.
"Make this known: There is no question of giving up the fight," Massoud told the The Wall Street Journal. "Here in Panjshir, our resistance is just beginning."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"We will never accept an imposed peace," he added, "and we will resist until we achieve justice and freedom." Massoud said thousands of Afghans are joining in the fight, and he will continue to negotiate with the Taliban because "as any human being, I prefer peace over war." He maintained that "the wind may shift" if he receives support "from anyone who is willing," and from the U.S., in particular. "I will never accept an imposed peace for the sake of stability," Massoud told the Journal.
On Monday, an Afghan soldier was shot and killed by an "unknown assailant" in a gunfight outside of Kabul's airport, as the herculean effort to evacuate Americans, foreigners, and Afghan allies continues, writes The Associated Press. Meanwhile, the Taliban have warned that any move to extend the American presence in Afghanistan beyond the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline would "provoke a reaction," per Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen.
The militant group has reportedly begun surrounding Panjshir, and Massoud's fate may now be "uncertain." Read more at The Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal.
-
World’s oldest rock art discovered in IndonesiaUnder the Radar Ancient handprint on Sulawesi cave wall suggests complexity of thought, challenging long-held belief that human intelligence erupted in Europe
-
Claude Code: the viral AI coding app making a splash in techThe Explainer Engineers and noncoders alike are helping the app go viral
-
‘Human trafficking isn’t something that happens “somewhere else”’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
Maduro pleads not guilty in first US court hearingSpeed Read Deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores pleaded not guilty to cocaine trafficking and narco-terrorism conspiracy
-
Iran’s government rocked by protestsSpeed Read The death toll from protests sparked by the collapse of Iran’s currency has reached at least 19
-
Israel approves new West Bank settlementsSpeed Read The ‘Israeli onslaught has all but vanquished a free Palestinian existence in the West Bank’
