Meeting Ahmad Massoud, the Sandhurst graduate taking on the Taliban

The Taliban do not yet control all of Afghanistan. As most of the country fell to the Islamic militant group with terrifying speed, Panjshir valley, about 100 miles north of Kabul, leading deep into the Hindu Kush mountains, remained unconquered. It is now the last province beyond the Taliban’s control.

While many Afghan politicians have fled the country, Ahmad Massoud — leader of the National Resistance Front, the anti–Taliban resistance in Panjshir — has decided with (perhaps) a few thousand followers to try to turn the valley into a final redoubt. He has vowed that if war breaks out, his rebels will fight ‘to the very last breath’. His pledge may well be put to the test. This week hundreds of Taliban fighters entered the valley, preparing for a siege.

Massoud, just 32, is the son of Ahmad Shah Massoud — the ‘Lion of Panjshir’ — whose amazingly resourceful guerrilla campaigns and defence of the Panjshir valley against the Soviets led eventually to the total retreat of a demoralised Russian army, and was certainly one of the chief causes of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

What sort of a man is Ahmad Massoud? Unlike his father, who had years of combat experience by the time he was in his thirties, he has never fought before. He is, however, well educated in politics and military strategy. He trained as a foreign cadet at Sandhurst, read war studies at King’s College, and studied international politics for his masters at London’s City University. He wrote his undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on the Taliban. It is remarkable to think that he returned to Afghanistan only in 2016 and entered politics just two years ago. Now he’s leading Afghanistan’s last resistance. He believes it is his destiny.