Ahmad Massoud, son of assassinated anti-Taliban fighter, requests US for weapons
"I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father's footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban," Ahmad Massoud said.
The son of Afghanistan’s most famed anti-Taliban fighter says he has the forces to mount an effective resistance, but called on the United States to supply arms and ammunition to his militia.
In an op-ed published Wednesday in The Washington Post, Ahmad Massoud said “America can still be a great arsenal of democracy” by supporting his fighters.
“I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban,” he said.
His father Ahmad Shah Massoud, known as the Lion of Panjshir, led the strongest resistance against the Taliban from his stronghold in the valley northeast of Kabul until his assassination in 2001.
Famed for its natural defences, the redoubt tucked into the Hindu Kush mountains never fell to the Taliban during the civil war of the 1990s, nor was it conquered by the Soviets a decade earlier, and is now Afghanistan’s last remaining holdout.
Hoping to follow in his “father’s footsteps”, Massoud said he has been joined by former members of the country’s special forces and soldiers from the Afghan army “disgusted by the surrender of their commanders”.
Social media images show Afghanistan’s defiant vice president Amrullah Saleh meeting with Massoud, and the duo appear to be assembling the first pieces of a guerrilla movement to take on the Taliban.
“But we need more weapons, more ammunition and more supplies,” Massoud said.
‘Ground zero’
Tens of thousands of people have tried to flee Afghanistan since the hardline Islamist terrorist swept into the capital on Sunday, completing a stunning rout of government forces and ending two decades of war.
Nearly 6,000 people — including US citizens and Afghans — have been evacuated by the US military, with the government urging the Taliban to allow safe passage for people to flee.
