“Panjshir Resistance” against Taliban 
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Ahmad Massoud has assembled a coalition of anti-Taliban fighters in Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley – an area that neither the Soviet Red Army nor the Taliban has ever conquered
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Mazar-i-Sharif

Aug 17:
Panjshir fighters attack Taliban in Pawan province

AFGHANISTAN
Panjshir Valley
Kabul
     

200km 125 miles
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Jul 10, 1989: Ahmad Massoud (above) born in Takhar province, son of anti-Soviet and anti-Taliban resistance fighter Ahmad Shah Massoud (right).
Massoud’s father is assassinated by Al Qaeda days before 9/11 attacks in 2001
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Education: Iran and Britain. Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, degree in War Studies at King’s College, London, master’s degree in International Politics
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2016: Returns to Afghanistan, appointed CEO of Massoud Foundation
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Sep 2019: Ahmad Massoud launches new political alliance at his father’s mausoleum in Panjshir Valley. Some 10,000 followers hear Massoud’s call for elected officials who are answerable to all Afghan people – who give equal treatment to all ethnic and religious groups
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Aug 2021:
Ahmad Massoud, caretaker President Amrullah Saleh (right) and former defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi form Panjshir Resistance. Reports that several thousand members of Afghan army – with armoured personnel carriers and tanks – also join force
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Sources: AFP, Atlantic Council, New York Times Pictures: Getty Images © GRAPHIC NEWS